The  Origin  of 
c3^^ 

the  Red  Gross 


Henri  Dunant 


LIBRARY 


JEAN  HENRI  DUNANT 


The  ORIGIN  of 
the  RED  CROSS 


"Un  Souvenir 
de    Solferino" 


BY 

HENRI  DUNANT 


Translated  from  the  French   by 

MRS.  DAVID   H.  WRIGHT, 

of  the  Philadelphia  Chapter  of  the  American 
Red  Cross,  Independence  Hall.- 
lna,  PC. 


1911 
THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  CO. 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  MRS.  DAVID  H.  WRIGHT. 


AMERICAN  RED  CROSS. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C,  November  9,  1910. 

Mrs.  David  H.  Wright, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

DEAR  MRS.  WRIGHT: 

I  appreciate  and  thank  you  for  your  courtesy  in 
dedicating  to  me,  as  President  of  the  American  Red 
Cross,  this  recent  translation  of  Henri  Dunant's  **Un 
Souvenir  de  Solferino." 

Whoever  calls  attention  of  the  people  to  the  suf- 
ferings and  misery  caused  by  war  so  that  men  realizing 
its  results  become  loath  to  undertake  it,  performs  a 
public  service. 


President  American  Red  Cross. 


in 


257019 


EDITOR'S  NOTE 

So  far  as  is  known,  this  book  of  such  far- 
reaching  influence  has  never  before  been 
translated  or  published  in  English. 


iv 


PREFACE 

Henri  Dunant,  the  famous  author  of  "A 
Souvenir  of  Solferino,"  was  born  in  Geneva 
in  1828. 

The  instruction  and  philanthropic  prin- 
ciples received  by  him  in  his  youth,  together 
with  his  natural  energy  and  power  of  organ- 
ization, were  a  good  foundation  for  the  un- 
folding of  the  ideas  and  inclinations  which 
led  to  his  fertile  acts. 

In  1850  occurred  the  event  which  defi- 
nitely impelled  him  to  a  course  of  action 
which  did  not  discontinue  during  his  whole 
life.  A  course  of  action  for  the  mitigation 
of  the  sufferings  caused  by  war,  or  from  a 
broader  point  of  view,  for  the  commence- 
ment of  the  reign  of  peace. 

This  event  was  the  battle  of  Solferino, 
when  he  first  organized,  in  Castiglione,  corps 
of  volunteers  to  search  for  and  nurse  the 
wounded. 

Having  thus  started  the  idea  of  a  per- 
manent organization  of  these  voluntary 
bands  of  compassionate  workers,  and  also 
of  an  international  treaty  agreement  in  re- 
gard to  the  wounded,  he  presented  himself 


PREFACE 

to  Marshal  MacMahon  and  afterwards  to 
Napoleon  III,  who  became  interested  in  the 
project  of  Dunant  and  immediately  ordered 
his  army  no  longer  to  make  prisoners  of  the 
physicians  and  nurses  of  the  enemy. 

Soon  Dunant  organized  an  Aid  Commit- 
tee in  Geneva,  and  shortly  afterwards  he 
published  his  "Souvenir  of  Solferino,"  which 
was  enthusiastically  received  and  greatly 
applauded. 

He  met,  however,  opposition  and  obstacles, 
principally  from   the   French   Minister^oji 
War. 

The  philanthropic  ideas  of  this  book  were 
received  with  interest  by  many  European 
sovereigns  with  whom  Dunant  had  inter- 
course, either  by  correspondence  or  by  con- 
versation; he  always  propagated  persistently 
his  ideas  in  regard  to  the  organization  of  a 
national  permanent  committee  for  the 
wounded,  his  International  Treaty,  and  the 
neutralization  of  those  injured  in  war  (he 
developed  in  separate  works  his  ideas  which 
were  outlined  only  in  the  "Souvenir." 

The  Geneva  Society  of  Public  Utility 
created  a  commission  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  the  question.  Meanwhile  Dunant 
had  the  opportunity  to  speak  with  the  King 
of  Saxony,  and  to  persuade  representatives 

vi 


PREFACE 

of  some  other  countries  to  take  up  the  ques- 
tion with  their  respective  sovereigns. 

Dunant  interested  the  governments  so 
much  in  his  project  that  various  nations  sent 
delegates  to  the  International  Conference, 
which  was  held  in  Geneva,  in  1863,  when  it 
was  decided  to  establish  a  National  Com- 
mittee, and  when  the  desire  was  expressed 
that  the  neutralization  of  the  physicians, 
nurses  and  injured  should  be  provided  by 
treaty,  and  for  the  adoption  of  a  distinctive 
and  uniform  international  emblem  and  flag 
for  the  hospital  corps,  and  the  unanimous 
thanks  of  this  Conference  were  extended  to 
Dunant. 

To  consider  this  subject,  a  diplomatic  In- 
ternational Congress  was  held  in  1864,  at 
Geneva,  by  invitation  of  the  Swiss  Federate 
Counsel.  The  treaty  there  drafted  accepted 
the  projects  of  Dunant  and  the  formation 
of  Volunteer  Aid  Societies,  later  called  Red 
Cross  Societies,  was  recommended  by  the 
Convention  to  the  signatory  powers. 

In  the  further  development  of  the  ideas 
of  Dunant  The  Hague  Conference,  in  1800, 
extended  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of 
Geneva  to  naval  warfare. 

Thus,  a  single  individual,  inspired  with  the 
sentiment  of  kindness  and  compassion  for 

vii 


PREFACE 

his  fellow-creatures,  by  his  own  untiring 
energy  attained  the  realization  of  his  ideas, 
and  aided  in  the  progress  of  mankind  toward 
peace. 

Thus,  truly  all  men,  and  above  all,  the 
workers  for  peace,  owe  to  this  laborer 
merited  and  everlasting  gratitude  and  re- 
membrance. 


The   recompense,    however,   arrived   late. 

In  the  zealous  propaganda,  for  which,  dur- 
ing four  years,  he  edited  pamphlets  and 
articles  in  all  languages,  and  traveled  con- 
tinuously through  the  whole  of  Europe, 
Dunant  spent  everything  that  he  possessed, 
and,  for  many  years,  nothing  more  was 
heard  of  the  modest  and  good  man,  to  whom 
the  approval  of  his  conscience  was  all  suffi- 
cient. 

At  last,  in  1897,  he  was  discovered  in  the 
Swiss  village  of  Heiden,  where  he  was  living 
in  misery,  in  a  "Home''  for  old  men,  with 
almost  no  means  other  than  a  small  pension 
received  from  the  Empress  of  Russia. 

The  Baroness  von  Suttner  sent  at  that 
time  to  the  press  of  the  whole  world,  and 
especially  to  those  interested  in  International 
Peace,  an  appeal  to  raise  a  contribution  of 
money  to  ease  his  last  years.  In  1901,  when 


VUl 


PREFACE 

the  Nobel-Peace-Prize,  valued  at  208,000 
francs,  was  awarded  for  the  first  time,  it 
was  divided  between  Henri  Dunant  and 
Frederick  Passy. 

It  is  true  that  many  peace  workers  did 
not  approve  of  this  decision  of  the  Nobel 
Committee.  They  said  in  opposition,  that 
the  projects  of  Dunant  not  only  were  not 
pacific,  but  could  even  have  the  contrary 
effect.  To  lessen  the  terrors  of  war  is  really, 
according  to  them,  to  destroy  the  most  ef- 
fective means  of  turning  men  from  it,  and 
consequently  tended  to  prolong  the  duration 
of  its  reign.  One  of  the  chief  representatives 
of  this  idea,  Signor  H.  H.  Fried,  said  that 
the  Geneva  Convention  was  only  a  small 
concession  by  the  governments  to  the  new 
idea  that  is  fighting  against  war. 

Without  doubt,  they  do  not  approve  of  the 
humane  plan  of  Dunant,  on  the  contrary, 
they  think  that  it  is  not  essentially  peace- 
making; that  it  should  not  be  recompensed 
by  the  first  peace  prize,  and  that  it  is  danger- 
ous to  confuse  pacification  with  simple  hu- 
manitarianism. 

The  contrary  opinion  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing words,  written  by  Signor  Ruyssin, 
in  the  review  "Peace  by  Right,"  at  the  time 
when  Dunant  received  his  prize: 
ix 


PREFACE 

"His  glory  has  grown  each  year  in  pro- 
portion to  all  the  lessening  of  suffering  which 
his  work  has  accomplished,  to  all  the  lives 
which  it  saves,  and  to  all  the  self-devotion 
to  which  it  gives  birth. 

"Henri  Dunant  has  decreased  the  abomi- 
nation of  war;  Frederick  Passy  fought  to 
make  it  impossible.  One  has  accomplished 
more;  the  other  has  created  more  remote, 
but  brighter  hopes.  One  has  harvested  al- 
ready; the  other  sows  for  the  future  harvest; 
and  so  it  would  be  arbitrary  and  unjust  to 
compare  such  dissimilar  lines  of  work,  both 
equally  meritorious.  The  accomplishment  of 
the  wishes  of  Nobel  rightly  placed  identical 
crowns  on  the  heads  of  two  old  men  who 
employed  their  lives  in  fighting  against 
war." 

This  disagreement  is  interesting  in  that 
it  shows  the  contrary  judgment  to  which  dif- 
ferent zealous  peace  workers  were  led  in  re- 
gard to  the  project  of  Dunant. 

Whatever  may  be  the  conclusion  of  the 
reader,  about  the  relation  between  it  and  the 
peace  propaganda,  he  will  certainly  be  of 
the  opinion  that  "A  Souvenir  of  Solferino," 
showing  the  abominations  of  war,  is  a  use- 
ful instrument  of  the  propaganda,  and  that 
the  name  of  Dunant  should  be  blessed,  as 


PREFACE 

that  of  one  of  the  most  self-devoted  bene- 
factors of  mankind. 

Henri  Dunant  died  at  Heiden,  Switzer- 
land, on  October  the  thirty-first,  ipio. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

The  bloody  victory  of  Magenta  opened  the 
gates  of  Milan  to  the  French  Army,  which 
the  towns  of  Pavia,  Lodi  and  Cremona  wel- 
comed enthusiastically. 

The  Austrians,  abandoning  the  lines  of  the 
Adda,  the  Oglio,  and  the  Chiese,  gathered 
their  forces  on  the  bank  of  the  River  Mincio, 
at  whose  head  the  young  and  courageous 
Emperor  Joseph  placed  himself. 

The  King  of  Sardinia,  Victor  Emmanuel, 
arrived  on  the  seventeenth  of  June,  1859, 
at  Brescia,  where,  with  great  joy,  the  inhabi- 
tants welcomed  him,  seeing  in  the  son  of 
Charles  Albert  a  saviour  and  a  hero.  Dur- 
ing the  next  day  the  French  Emperor  en- 
tered the  same  town  amid  the  enthusiastic 
cries  of  the  people,  happy  to  show  their 
gratitude  to  the  monarch  who  came  to  help 
them  gain  their  independence. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  June,  Napoleon  III 
and  Victor  Emmanuel  II  left  Brescia,  from 
which  place  their  armies  had  departed  dur- 
ing the  previous  day.  On  the  twenty-second 
they  occupied  Lonato,  Castenedolo  and  Mon- 
1 


1THE:  6'Ri6i*N**bF  THE  RED  CROSS 

techiaro.  On  the  evening  of  the  twenty- 
third  Napoleon,  who  was  commander-in- 
chief,  published  strict  orders  for  the  army 
of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  encamped  at  Desen- 
zano,  and  forming  the  left  flank  of  the  allied 
armies,  to  proceed  early  the  following  day 
to  Pozzelengo. 

Marshal  Baraguey  d*  Hilliers  was  ordered 
to  march  on  Solferino;  Marshal  MacMahon, 
Duke  de  Magenta,  on  Cavriana ;  General  Neil 
was  to  proceed  to  Guidizzolo;  Marshal  Can- 
robert  to  Medole ;  Marshal  Regnaud  de  Saint- 
Jean  d'  Angley,  with  the  Imperial  Guard,  to 
Castiglione. 

These  united  forces  amounted  to  150,000 
'.men,  with  400  cannon. 

The  Austrian  Emperor  had  at  his  dispo- 
sition, in  the  Lombardo- Venetian  kingdom, 
nine  army  corps,  amounting  in  all  to  250,000 
'  men,  comprising  the  garrison  of  Verona  and 
VMantua.  The  effective  force  prepared  to 
enter  the  line  of  battle  consisted  of  seven 
corps,  some  170,000  men,  supported  by  500 
cannon. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  had  been  moved  from  Verona  to  Vil- 
lafranca,  then  to  Valeggio.  On  the  evening 
of  the  twenty-third  the  Austrian  troops  re- 
ceived the  order  to  recross  the  River  Mincio 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

during  the  night  to  Peschiera,  Salionze, 
Valeggio,  Ferri,  Goito  and  Mantua.  The 
main  part  of  the  army  took  up  its  position 
from  Pozzolengo  to  Guidizzolo,  in  order  to 
attack  the  enemy  between  the  Rivers  Mincio 
and  Chiese. 

The  Austrian  forces  formed  two  armies. 
The  first  having  as  Commander-in-chief 
Count  Wimpffen,  under  whose  orders  were 
the  corps  commanded  by  Field  Marshals 
Prince  Edmund  Schwarzenberg,  Count 
Schaffgotsche  and  Baron  Veigl,  also  the 
cavalry  division  of  Count  Zeidewitz.  This 
composed  the  left  flank.  It  was  stationed  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Volta,  Guidizzolo,  Me- 
dole  and  Castel-Gioffredo. 

The  second  army  was  commanded  by 
Count  Schlick,  having  under  his  orders  the 
Field  Marshals  Count  Clam-Gallas,  Count 
Stadion,  Baron  Zobel  and  Cavalier  Benedek, 
as  well  as  the  cavalry  division  of  Count 
Mensdorf.  This  composed  the  right  flank. 
It  occupied  Cavriana,  Pozzolengo  and  San 
Martino. 

Thus,  on  the  morning  of  the  twenty-fourth, 
the  Austrians  occupied  all  the  heights  be- 
tween Pozzolengo,  Solferino,  Cavriana  and 
Guidizzolo.  They  ranged  their  artillery  in 
series  of  breastworks,  forming  the  center  of 

3 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

the  attacking  line,  which  permitted  their 
right  and  left  flanks  to  fall  back  upon  these 
fortified  heights  which  they  believed  to  be 
unconquerable. 

The  two  belligerent  armies,  although 
marching  one  against  the  other,  did  not  ex- 
pect such  a  sudden  meeting.  Austria,  misin- 
formed, supposed  that  only  a  part  of  the 
allied  army  had  crossed  the  Chiese  River. 
On  their  side  the  confederates  did  not  expect 
this  attack  in  return,  and  did  not  believe 
that  they  would  find  themselves  so  soon  be- 
fore the  army  of  the  Austrian  Emperor. 
The  reconnoitering,  the  observations  and  the 
reports  of  the  scouts,  and  those  made  from 
the  fire  balloons  during  the  day  of  the 
twenty-third  showed  no  signs  of  such  an  im- 
minent encounter. 

The  collision  of  the  armies  of  Austria  and 
Franco-Sardinia  on  Friday,  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  June,  1859,  was,  therefore,  unex- 
pected, although  the  combatants  on  both 
sides  conjectured  that  a  great  battle  was 
near. 

The  Austrian  army,  already  fatigued  by 
the  difficult  march  during  the  night  of  the 
twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth,  had  to  sup- 
port from  the  earliest  dawn  the  attack  of 
the  enemies'  armies  and  to  suffer  from  the 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

intensely  hot  weather  as  well  as  from  hunger 
and  thirst,  for,  except  a  double  ration  of 
brandy,  the  greater  number  of  the  Austrians 
were  unable  to  take  any  food. 

The  French  troops  already  in  movement 
before  daybreak  had  had  nothing  but  coffee. 
Therefore,  this  exhaustion  of  the  soldiers, 
and  above  all,  of  the  unfortunate  wounded, 
was  extreme  at  the  end  of  this  very  bloody 
battle,  which  lasted  more  than  fifteen  hours. 

Both  armies  are  awake. 

Three  hundred  thousand  men  are  standing 
face  to  face.  The  line  of  battle  is  ten  miles 
long. 

Already  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
corps  commanded  by  Marshals  Baraguey  d' 
Hilliers  and  MacMahon  are  commencing  to 
move  on  Solferino  and  Cavriana. 

Hardly  have  the  advance  columns  passed 
Castiglione  when  they  themselves  are  in  the 
presence  of  the  first  posts  of  the  Austrians, 
who  dispute  the  ground. 

On  all  sides  bugles  are  playing  the  charges 
and  the  drums  are  sounding. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  who  passed  the 
night  at  Montechiaro  hastens  rapidly  to  Cas- 
tiglione. 

By  six  o'clock  a  furious  fire  has  com- 
menced. 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

The  Austrians  march  in  a  compact  mass  in 
perfect  order  along  the  open  roads.  In  the 
air  are  flying  their  black  and  yellow  stand- 
ards, on  which  are  embroidered  the  ancient 
Imperial  arms. 

The  day  is  very  clear.  The  Italian  sun 
makes  the  brilliant  equipments  of  the  dra- 
goons, the  lancers  and  the  cuirassiers  of  the 
French  army  glitter  brightly. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  engagement 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  together  with 
his  entire  staff,  leaves  headquarters  in  order 
to  go  to  Volta.  He  is  accompanied  by  the 
Archdukes  of  the  House  of  Lorraine,  among 
whom  are  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  and 
the  Duke  of  Modena. 

In  the  midst  of  the  difficulties  of  a  field 
unknown  to  the  French  army  the  first  meet- 
ing takes  place.  It  has  to  make  its  way 
through  plantations  of  mulberry  trees,  inter- 
laced by  climbing  vines,  which  form  almost 
impassable  barriers. 

The  earth  is  cut  by  great  dried  up  trenches 
which  the  horses  have  to  leap,  and  by  long 
walls  with  broad  foundations  which  they 
have  to  climb. 

From  the  hills  the  Austrians  pour  on  the 
enemy  a  constant  hail  of  shot  and  shell.  With 
the  smoke  of  the  cannon's  continual  dis- 

6 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

charge  the  rain  of  bullets  is  ploughing  up 
the  earth  and  dust  into  thousands  of  missiles. 

The  French  hurl  themselves  upon  these 
strongly  fortified  places  in  spite  of  the  firing 
of  the  batteries  which  falls  upon  the  earth 
with  redoubled  force. 

During  the  burning  heat  of  noon  the  battle 
everywhere  becomes  more  and  more  furious. 

Column  after  column  throw  themselves 
one  against  the  other  with  the  force  of  a 
devastating  torrent. 

A  number  of  French  regiments  surround 
masses  of  Austrian  troops,  but,  like  iron 
walls,  these  resist  and  at  first  remain  un- 
shaken. 

Entire  divisions  throw  their  knapsacks  to 
the  earth  in  order  to  rush  at  the  enemy  with 
fixed  bayonets. 

If  a  battalion  is  driven  away  another  re- 
places it;  each  hill,  each  height,  each  rocky 
eminence  becomes  a  theatre  for  an  obstinate 
struggle. 

On  the  heights,  as  well  as  in  the  ravines, 
the  dead  lie  piled  up.  The  Austrians  and  the 
allied  armies  march  one  against  the  other, 
killing  each  other  above  the  blood-covered 
corpses,  butchering  with  gunshots,  crushing 
each  other's  skulls  or  disemboweling  with 
the  sword  or  bayonet.  No  cessation  in  the 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

conflict,  no  quarter  given.  The  wounded  are 
defending  themselves  to  the  last.  It  is 
butchery  by  madmen  drunk  with  blood. 

Sometimes  the  fighting  becomes  more  ter- 
rible on  account  of  the  arrival  of  rushing, 
galloping  cavalry.  The  horses,  more  com- 
passionate than  their  riders,  seek  in  vain 
to  step  over  the  victims  of  this  butchery,  but 
their  iron  hoofs  crush  the  dead  and  dying. 
With  the  neighing  of  the  horses  are  mingled 
blasphemies,  cries  of  rage,  shrieks  of  pain 
and  despair. 

The  artillery,  at  full  speed,  follows  the 
cavalry  which  has  cut  a  way  through  the 
corpses  and  the  wounded  lying  in  confusion 
on  the  ground.  A  jaw-bone  of  one  of  these 
last  is  torn  away;  the  head  of  another  is 
battered  in ;  the  breast  of  a  third  is  crushed. 
Limbs  are  broken  and  bruised;  the  field  is 
covered  with  human  remains;  the  earth  is 
soaked  with  blood. 

The  French  troops,  with  fiery  ardor,  scale 
the  steep  hills  and  rocky  declivities  in  spite 
of  shot  and  shell. 

Hardly  does  some  harassed  and  profusely 
perspiring  company  capture  a  hill  and  reach 
its  summit,  when  it  falls  like  an  avalanche 
on  the  Austrians,  overthrows,  repulses  and 
pursues  them  to  the  depths  of  the  hollows. 
8 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

But  the  Austrians  regain  the  advantage. 
Ambuscaded  behind  the  houses,  the  churches 
and  the  walls  of  Medole,  Solf  erino  and  Cavri- 
ana,  they  heroically  fight  on  and  very  nearly 
win  the  victory. 

The  unending  combat  rages  incessantly 
and  in  every  place  with  fury.  Nothing  stops, 
nothing  interrupts  the  butchery.  They  are 
killing  one  another  by  the  hundreds.  Every 
foot  of  ground  is  carried  at  the  bayonet's 
point,  every  post  disputed  foot  by  foot. 
From  the  hands  of  the  enemy  are  taken 
villages,  house  after  house,  farm  after  farm, 
each  is  the  theatre  of  a  siege.  Doors,  win- 
dows and  courts  are  abattoirs. 

A  rain  of  cannon  balls  is  sending  death 
to  the  distant  reserves  of  Austria.  If  these 
desert  the  field  they  yield  it  only  step  by 
step,  and  soon  recommence  action.  Their 
ranks  are  ceaselessly  reforming.  On  the 
plains  the  wind  raises  the  dust,  which  flies 
over  the  roads  like  dense  clouds,  darkening 
the  day  and  blinding  the  fighters. 

The  French  cavalry  flings  itself  on  the 
Austrian  cavalry;  uhlans  and  hussars  slash 
furiously  at  each  other  with  their  swords. 

The  rage  is  so  great  that  in  some  places, 
after  the  exhaustion  of  the  cartridges  and 
9 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  breaking  of  the  muskets,  they  fight  with 
fists  and  beat  one  another  with  stones. 

The  strongest  positions  are  captured,  lost, 
and  recaptured,  to  be  lost  again.  Every- 
where men  are  falling  mutilated,  riddled 
with  bullets,  covered  with  wounds. 

In  the  midst  of  these  endless  combats, 
these  massacres,  blasphemies  arise  in  differ- 
ent tongues,  telling  of  the  diverse  nationali- 
ties of  the  men,  many  of  whom  are  obliged 
to  become  homicides  in  their  twentieth  year. 

The  soldiers  of  the  Sardinian  King,  de- 
fending and  attacking  with  fervor,  continue 
their  skirmishes  from  early  morning.  The 
hills  of  San  Martino,  Roccolo,  Madonno  della 
Scoperta  are  captured  and  recaptured  five 
or  six  times.  Their  Generals  Mollard,  La 
Marmora,  Della  Rocca,  Durando,  Fanti, 
Cialdini,  Cucchiari,  de  Sonnoz,  with  all 
kinds  and  all  grades  of  officers  help  the  king 
before  whose  eyes  lie  the  wounded  Generals 
Cedale,  Perrier  and  Arnoldi. 

The  French  Emperor  orders  that  the  corps 
of  Baraguey  d*  Hilliers  and  MacMahon,  to- 
gether with  the  Imperial  Guard,  attack  at 
the  same  time  the  fortress  of  San  Cassiano 
and  occupy  Solferino. 

But  the  brave  Austrians  make  the  allied 
army  pay  dearly  for  its  success 

10 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

One  of  its  heroes,  Prince  Aleksandro  de  Hes- 
sen,  after  fighting  with  great  courage  at 
San  Cassiano  defends  against  repeated  at- 
tacks, the  three  heights  of  Mount  Fontana. 
.  .  .  .  At  Guidizzolo,  Prince  Charles  of 
Windischraetz,  braves  certain  death  in  seek- 
ing to  recapture  under  a  hail  of  balls  Casa 
Nova.  Mortally  wounded,  he  still  commands, 
supported  and  carried  by  his  brave  soldiers, 
who  vainly  make  for  him  a  rampart  of  their 
own  bodies. 

Marshal  Baraguey  d'  Hilliers  finally  enters 
the  town  of  Solf erino,  courageously  defended 
by  Baron  Stadion. 

The  sky  is  darkened,  dense  clouds  cover 
the  horizon.  A  furious  wind  is  rising.  It 
carries  away  the  broken  branches  of  the 
trees.  A  cold  rain,  driven  by  the  tempest, 
a  veritable  cloud-burst,  drenches  the  com- 
batants, exhausted  from  hunger  and  fatigue, 
while  dust,  hail  and  smoke  are  blinding  the 
soldiers  forced  to  fight  also  the  elements. 

The  army  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
retreats.  Throughout  the  entire  action  the 
chief  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  shows  ad- 
mirable tranquillity  and  self-control. 

During  the  capture  of  Cavriana  the  Aus- 
trian Emperor  finds  himself,  together  with 
Baron  Schlick  and  the  Prince  of  Nassau,  on 
11 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  adjacent  heights,  Madonna  della  Pieve, 
opposite  a  church  surrounded  by  cypress 
trees.  Towards  evening,  the  Austrian  center 
having  yielded  and  the  left  flank  not  daring 
to  hope  to  force  the  position  of  the  allies,  the 
general  retreat  is  decided.  In  this  grave 
moment,  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  around 
whom  rained  balls  and  bullets  during  the 
whole  day,  goes  with  a  part  of  his  staff  to 
Volta,  while  the  Archdukes  and  the  heredi- 
tary Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  returned  to 
Valeggio. 

The  Austrian  officers  fought  like  lions. 
Some,  through  despair,  let  themselves  die, 
but  sold  their  lives  dearly.  The  greater 
number  rejoin  their  regiments  covered  with 
the  blood  of  their  own  wounds  or  with  that 
of  the  enemy.  To  their  bravery  should  be 
rendered  merited  praise. 

.  .  .  .  Guidizzolo  remains  occupied 
by  the  Austrians  until  ten  o'clock  in  the  eve- 
ning  The  roads  are  covered  with 

army  wagons,  carts  and  reserve  artillery. 
The  transport  vans  are  saved  by  the  rapid 
construction  of  improvised  bridges.  The 
first  Austrian  wounded  consisting  of  men 
slightly  injured,  commence  to  enter  Villa- 
franca.  The  more  seriously  wounded  follow 
them.  Austrian  physicians  and  their  assist- 
12 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

ants  rapidly  bandage  the  wounds,  give  some 
nourishment  to  the  wounded  and  send  them 
by  railroad  trains  to  Verona,  where  the  em- 
barrassment is  becoming  terrible. 

Although  during  its  retreat  the  Austrian 
army  tries  to  carry  away  all  the  wounded 
which  it  could  transport  (and  with  what 
great  suffering!),  nevertheless,  thousands  re- 
main lying  on  the  ground  moistened  with 
their  blood. 

The  allied  army  is  in  possession  of  the  con- 
quered field. 

Near  the  close  of  the  day  when  the  eve- 
ning shadows  creep  over  this  vast  field  of 
carnage,  more  than  one  officer,  more  than 
one  French  soldier,  seek  here  and  there  a 
comrade,  a  compatriot,  or  a  friend,  when 
he  finds  the  wounded  friend,  he  kneels  beside, 
trying  to  restore  him  to  consciousness,  wip- 
ing away  the  blood,  bandaging  the  wounds 
as  well  as  he  can,  wrapping  a  handkerchief 
around  the  broken  limb,  but  rarely  can  he 
secure  water  for  the  suffering  man. 

How  many  silent  tears  were  shed  during 
this  sad  night,  when  all  false  pride,  all  hu- 
man regard  were  set  aside. 

During  the  battle,  hospitals  for  the 
wounded  established  in  nearby  farmhouses, 
churches,  monasteries,  in  the  open  air,  under 

13 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  shade  of  trees  receive  the  wounded 
officers  and  non-commissioned  officers,  who 
are  hastily  given  treatment.  After  these 
comes  the  turn  of  the  soldiers,  when  that  is 
possible.  Those  of  the  latter  who  are  still 
able  to  walk  find  their  way  to  the  field  hos- 
pitals. The  others  are  carried  on  litters  and 
stretchers,  weakened  as  they  are  by  loss  of 
blood,  by  pain,  by  continued  lack  of  food, 
and  by  the  mental  and  moral  shock  they  have 
experienced.  During  the  battle  a  pennant 
fixed  on  an  elevation  marks  the  station  for 
the  wounded  and  the  field  hospitals  of  the 
fighting  regiments.  Unfortunately,  only  a 
few  of  the  soldiers  know  the  color  of  the  hos- 
pital pennant  or  that  of  the  hospital  flag  of 
the  enemy,  for  the  colors  differ  with  the 
different  nations.  The  bombs  fall  upon  them, 
sparing  neither  physicians,  nor  wounded, 
nor  wagons  loaded  with  bread,  wine,  meat 
or  lint. 

The  heights  which  extend  from  Castiglione 
to  Volta,  sparkle  with  thousands  of  fires, 
which  are  fed  by  pieces  of  Austrian  gun- 
wagons  and  by  huge  branches  of  trees, 
broken  by  the  tempest  or  by  cannon  balls. 
The  soldiers  dry  their  dripping  clothes ;  then, 
overcome  by  fatigue  and  exhaustion,  they  fall 
asleep  on  the  stones  or  on  the  ground. 

14 
\ 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

What  terrible  episodes!  What  touching 
scenes !  What  disillusionments ! 
>  There  are  battalions  without  food,  com- 
panies lacking  almost  every  necessity,  be- 
cause of  the  loss  of  the  knapsacks.  Water 
also  is  lacking,  but  their  thirst  is  so  intense 
that  officers  and  soldiers  resort  to  slimy  and 
even  bloody  pools.  Everywhere  the  wounded 
are  begging  for  water. 

Through  the  silence  of  the  night  are  heard 
groans,  stifled  cries  of  anguish  and  pain, 
and  heartrending  voices  calling  for  help. 

Who  will  ever  be  able  to  paint  the  agonies 
of  this  horrible  night! 

The  sun  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  June,  1859, 
shines  above  one  of  the  most  frightful  sights 
imaginable.  The  battlefield  is  everywhere 
covered  with  corpses  of  men  and  horses. 
They  appear  as  if  sown  along  the  roads,  in 
the  hollows,  the  thickets  and  the  fields,  above 
all,  near  the  village  of  Solferino. 

The  fields  ready  for  the  harvest  are  ruined, 
the  grain  trodden  down,  the  fences  over- 
turned, the  orchards  destroyed. 

Here  and  there  one  finds  pools  of  blood. 

The  villages  are  deserted.  They  bear 
traces  of  bullets,  of  bombs  and  shells  and 
grenades. 

The  houses  whose  walls  have  been  pierced 
15 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

with  bullets  and  are  gaping  widely,  are 
shaken  and  ruined. 

The  inhabitants,  of  whom  the  greater 
number  have  passed  almost  twenty  hours  in 
the  refuge  of  their  cellars,  without  light  or 
food,  are  commencing  to  come  out.  The  look 
of  stupor  of  these  poor  peasants  bears  testi- 
mony to  the  long  terror  they  have  endured. 

The  ground  is  covered  with  all  kinds  of 
debris,  broken  pieces  of  arms,  articles  of 
equipments  and  blood-stained  clothing. 

The  miserable  wounded  gathered  up  dur- 
ing the  day  are  pale,  livid  and  inert. 

Some,  principally  those  seriously  injured, 
have  a  vacant  look,  they  seem  not  to  under- 
stand what  is  said  to  them.  They  turn  their 
staring  eyes  toward  those  who  bring  them 
help. 

Others,  in  a  dangerous  state  of  nervous 
shock,  are  shaking  with  convulsive  trem- 
blings. 

Still  others,  with  uncovered  wounds, 
where  inflammation  has  already  appeared, 
seem  frenzied  with  pain ;  they  beg  that  some 
one  may  end  their  sufferings,  and,  with 
drawn  faces,  writhe  in  the  last  torments  of 
agony. 

Elsewhere,  poor  fellows  are  prostrated  on 
the  ground  by  bullets  and  bursting  shells. 

16 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

Their  arms  and  legs  have  been  fractured  by 
the  cannon  wheels  that  have  passed  over 
them. 

The  shock  of  the  cylindrical  ball  shatters 
the  bones,  so  that  the  wound  it  causes  is  al- 
ways very  dangerous.  The  bursting  of  shells 
and  the  conical  balls  make  extremely  painful 
fractures,  the  internal  injury  being  terrible. 
Every  kind  of  pieces  of  bone,  of  earth,  of 
lead,  of  clothing,  of  equipments,  of  shoes, 
aggravate  and  irritate  the  wounds  of  the 
patients  and  increase  their  sufferings. 

Those  who  cross  this  vast  field  of  yester- 
day's battle  meet  at  every  step,  in  the  midst 
of  a  confusion  without  parallel,  inexpress- 
ible despair  and  suffering  of  every  kind. 

Some  of  the  battalions  which  had  taken  off 
their  knapsacks  during  the  battle,  at  last 
find  them  again,  but  they  have  been  robbed 
of  all  their  contents.  During  the  night,  vaga- 
bonds have  stolen  everything.  A  grave  loss 
to  the  poor  men  whose  linen  and  uniforms 
are  stained  and  torn.  Not  only  do  they  find 
themselves  deprived  of  their  clothing,  but 
even  their  smallest  savings,  all  their  fortune 
as  well  as  of  the  treasures  dear  to  them; 
small  family  mementoes  given  by  mothers, 
sisters  and  sweethearts. 

In  several  places  the  dead  are  stripped  of 

17 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

their  clothing  by  the  thieves,  who  do  not  al- 
ways spare  the  wounded  who  are  still  living. 

Besides  these  painful  sights  are  others  still 
more  dramatic. 

Here  the  old,  retired  General  Le  Breton 
wanders,  seeking  his  son-in-law,  the 
wounded  General  Douay,  who  has  left  his 
daughter,  Madame  Douay,  in  the  midst  of 
the  tumult  of  war,  in  a  state  of  the  most 
cruel  uneasiness.  There,  Colonel  de  Male- 
ville,  shot  at  Casa  Nova,  expires.  Here,  it  is 
Colonel  de  Genlis,  whose  dangerous  wound 
causes  a  burning  fever.  There,  Lieutenant 
de  Selve  of  the  artillery,  only  a  few  weeks 
out  of  Saint  Cyr,  has  his  right  arm  ampu- 
tated on  the  battlefield,  where  he  was 
wounded. 

I  help  care  for  a  poor  sergeant-major  of 
the  Vincennes  Chasseurs,  both  of  whose  legs 
are  pierced  through  with  balls.  I  meet  him 
again  in  the  Brescia  Hospital;  but  he  will 
die  crossing  Mount  Cenis. 

Lieutenant  de  Guiseul,  who  was  believed 
dead,  is  picked  up  on  the  spot,  where,  having 
fallen  with  his  standard,  he  was  lying  in  a 
swoon.  The  courageous  sub-lieutenant 
Fournier,  of  the  flying-guard,  gravely 
wounded,  finishes  in  his  twentieth  year  a 
military  career  commenced  in  his  tenth  year 

18 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

by  voluntarily  enlisting  in  the  foreign  legion. 
They  bury  the  Commander  de  Pontgibaud, 
who  died  during  the  night,  and  the  young 
Count  de  Saint  Paer,  who  had  attained  the 
rank  of  major  hardly  seven  days  before. 
General  Auger,  of  the  artillery,  is  carried  to 
the  field  hospital  of  Casa  Morino.  His  left 
shoulder  has  been  shattered  by  a  six-inch 
shell,  part  of  which  remained  imbedded  for 
twenty-four  hours  in  the  interior  of  the 
muscles  of  the  armpit.  Carried  to  Castig- 
lione  he  is  attacked  with  gangrene,  and  dies 
as  a  result  of  the  disarticulation  of  the  arm. 
General  de  Ladmirault  and  General  Dieu, 
both  gravely  wounded,  also  arrived  at  Cas- 
tiglione. 

The  lack  of  water  becomes  greater  and 
greater.  The  sun  is  burning,  the  ditches  are 
dried  up.  The  soldiers  have  only  brackish 
and  unwholesome  water  to  appease  their 
thirst.  Where  even  the  least  little  stream 
or  spring  trickling  drop  by  drop  is  found, 
guards  with  loaded  guns  have  great  difficulty 
in  preserving  this  water  for  the  most  urgent 
needs. 

Wounded  horses,  who  have  lost  their  rid- 
ers, and  have  wandered  during  the  whole 
night,  drag  themselves  to  their  comrades, 
from  whom  they  seem  to  beg  for  help.  They 
19 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

are  put  out  of  their  agony  by  a  bullet.  One 
of  these  noble  chargers  comes  alone  into  the 
midst  of  a  French  company.  The  rich  sad- 
dle-bag, fastened  to  the  saddle,  shows  that  it 
belongs  to  Prince  von  Isenberg.  Afterwards, 
the  wounded  Prince  himself  is  found;  but 
careful  nursing  during  a  serious  illness  will 
allow  him  to  return  to  Germany,  where  his 
family,  in  ignorance  of  the  truth,  have  be- 
lieved him  dead  and  have  mourned  for  him. 

Among  the  dead  some  have  peaceful  faces ; 
these  are  the  men  who  were  struck  suddenly 
and  died  at  once.  But  those  who  did  not 
perish  immediately  have  their  limbs  rigid 
and  twisted  in  agony,  their  bodies  are  cov- 
ered with  dirt;  their  hands  clutch  the  earth, 
their  eyes  are  open  and  staring,  a  convulsive 
contraction  has  uncovered  their  clenched 
teeth. 

Three  days  and  three  nights  are  passed  in 
burying  the  dead  who  are  left  on  the  battle- 
field. 

On  so  large  a  field,  many  of  the  corpses 
hidden  in  the  ditches,  covered  by  the  thick- 
ets or  by  some  uneveness  of  the  ground  are 
discovered  very  late.  They,  as  well  as  the 
dead  horses,  emit  a  fetid  stench. 

In  the  French  army  a  number  of  soldiers 
from  each  company  are  detailed  to  recognize 

20 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

and  bury  the  dead.  As  far  as  possible  sol- 
diers of  the  same  corps  must  pick  up  their 
fellow-members.  They  write  down  the  num- 
ber stamped  on  the  clothing  of  the  dead. 
Then,  aided  in  this  painful  duty  by  paid 
Lombardy  peasants,  they  put  the  corpses  in 
a  common  grave.  Unfortunately,  it  is  pos- 
sible that,  because  of  the  unavoidable  rapid- 
ity in  this  labor,  and  because  of  the  careless- 
ness and  inattention  of  the  paid  workmen, 
more  than  one  living  man  is  buried  with  the 
dead. 

The  letters,  papers,  orders,  money, 
watches  found  on  the  officers  are  sent  to 
their  families,  but  the  great  number  of  the 
interred  bodies  make  the  faithful  accom- 
plishment of  this  task  impossible. 

A  son,  the  idol  of  his  parents,  educated 
and  cared  for  during  many  years  by  a  lov- 
ing mother  who  was  uneasy  at  the  very 
slightest  indisposition.  A  brilliant  officer, 
beloved  by  his  family,  having  left  at  home 
his  wife  and  children.  A  young  soldier  who 
has  just  left  his  betrothed  and  his  mother, 
sisters  and  old  father;  there  he  lies  in  the 
mud  and  in  the  dust,  soaked  in  his  own  blood. 
Because  of  the  wound  in  his  head  his  face 
has  become  unrecognizable.  He  is  in  agony, 
he  expires  in  cruel  suffering,  and  his  body, 

21 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

black,  swollen,  hideous,  thrown  in  a  shallow 
grave,  is  covered  with  a  little  lime  and  earth. 
The  birds  of  prey  will  not  respect  his  feet 
and  hands  protruding  from  the  muddy 
ground  of  the  slope  which  serves  him  as  a 
tomb.  Some  one  will  come  back,  will  carry 
more  earth  there  and,  perhaps,  will  put  up 
a  wooden  cross  above  the  place  where  his 
body  rests,  and  that  will  be  all. 

The  corpses  of  the  Austrians,  clothed  in 
mud-stained  cloaks,  torn  linen  jackets,  white 
tunics  stained  with  blood  are  strewn  by 
thousands  on  the  hills  and  plains  of  Medole. 
Clouds  of  crows  fly  over  the  bodies  in  hopes 
of  having  them  for  prey. 

By  hundreds  they  are  crowded  into  a  great 
common  grave. 

Once  out  of  the  line  of  fire,  Austrian  sol- 
diers, slightly  wounded,  young  first-year  re- 
cruits, throw  themselves  on  the  ground  from 
fatigue  and  inanition,  then  weakened  by 
loss  of  blood,  they  die  miserably  from  ex- 
haustion and  hunger. 

Unhappy  mothers  in  Austria,  Hungary 
and  Bohemia,  your  sorrow  will  fte  great 
when  you  learn  that  your  children  died  in 
the  enemy's  country,  without  care,  without 
help,  and  without  consolation ! 

The  lot  of  the  Austrian  prisoners-of-war 

22 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

is  very  sad.  Led  like  simple  cattle,  they  are 
sent  in  a  crowd,  with  a  strong  guard,  to 
Brescia,  where  they  at  last  find  repose,  if 
not  a  kind  welcome. 

Some  French  soldiers  wish  to  do  violence 
to  the  Hungarian  captives  whom  they  take 
for  Creates,  adding  furiously  that  those 
"Glued-pantalooners,"  as  they  called  them, 
always  killed  the  wounded.  I  succeeded  in 
tearing  from  their  hands  these  unfortunate, 
trembling  captives. 

On  the  battle-field  many  Austrians  are 
permitted  to  keep  their  swords.  They  have 
the  same  food  as  the  French  officers.  Some 
troops  of  the  allied  army  fraternally  divide 
their  biscuits  with  the  famished  prisoners. 
Some  even  take  the  wounded  on  their  backs 
and  carry  them  to  the  ambulances.  Near  me 
the  lieutenant  of  the  guard  bandages  with 
his  white  handkerchief  the  head  of  a  Tyro- 
lese  which  was  scarcely  covered  with  old, 
torn,  and  dirty  linen. 

During  the  previous  day  at  the  height 
of  the  battle,  Commandant  de  la  Rochefou- 
cauld-Liancourt,  the  fearless  African  hunter, 
threw  himself  upon  a  squad  of  Hungarians ; 
but  his  horse  having  been  pierced  through 
with  balls,  he  himself  was  struck  by  two 
shots  and  made  prisoner  by  the  Hungarians. 

23 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

Learning  that  wounded  La  Rochefoucauld 
had  been  captured  by  the  soldiers,  the  Aus- 
trian Emperor  ordered  that  he  be  treated 
with  great  kindness  and  given  the  best  care. 

The  commissary  continue  to  pick  up  the 
wounded.  These,  bandaged  or  not,  are  car- 
ried by  mules  or  wheelbarrows  and  litters 
to  the  field  hospitals  in  the  villages  and 
towns  near  the  place  where  they  fell. 

In  these  towns,  churches,  monasteries, 
houses,  parks,  courts,  streets  and  prome- 
nades are  transformed  into  improvised  hos- 
pitals. 

In  Carpenedolo,  Castel-Goffredo,  Medole, 
Guidizzolo,  Volta  and  neighboring  places  are 
arriving  many  of  the  wounded.  But  the 
greater  number  are  carried  to  Castiglione, 
where  the  least  mutilated  have  already  suc- 
ceeded in  dragging  themselves. 

Behold  the  long  procession  of  vehicles  of 
the  Commissary  Department,  loaded  with 
soldiers,  non-commissioned  officers  and  of- 
ficers of  all  grades  mixed  together;  cavalry- 
men, infantry,  artillerymen,  bleeding, 
fatigued,  lacerated,  covered  with  dust.  Each 
jolt  of  the  wagons  which  carry  them  im- 
posing on  them  new  suffering. 

Then  the  mules  come  trotting  in,  their 
gait  drawing,  each  instant,  bitter  cries  from 

24 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  throats  of  the  unfortunate  wounded 
whom  they  are  bearing. 

Many  die  during  the  transportation. 

Their  corpses  are  put  on  the  sides  of  the 
roads.  To  others  is  left  the  duty  of  bury- 
ing them.  These  dead  are  enscribed,  "Dis- 
appeared." 

The  wounded  are  sent  to  Castiglione. 
From  there  they  are  carried  on  to  the  hos- 
pitals in  Brescia,  Cremona,  Bergama,  Milan, 
and  other  cities  of  Lombardy,  where  they 
will  receive  the  regular  care  and  will  submit 
to  the  necessary  amputations.  But  as  the 
means  of  transportation  are  very  scarce, 
they  are  obliged  to  wait  several  days  in 
Castiglione.  This  city,  where  the  confusion 
surpasses  all  imagination,  soon  becomes  for 
the  French  and  Austrians  a  vast  temporary 
hospital. 

On  the  day  of  battle  the  field-hospital  of 
headquarters  is  established  there.  Chests  of 
lint  are  unpacked,  dressings  for  wounds  and 
medicate  necessities  are  prepared.  The  in- 
habitants give  everything  that  they  can  get 
ready — coverings,  linens,  mattresses  and 
straw. 

The  Hospital  of  Castiglione,  the  monas- 
tary,  the  Barracks  of  San  Luigi,  the  Church 
of  the  Capucines,  the  stations  of  the  police, 

25 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  churches  of  Maggiore,  San  Giuseppe, 
Santa  Rosalie,  are  filled  with  the  wounded 
lying  crowded  on  the  straw. 

Straw  is  also  arranged  for  them  in  the 
courts  and  in  the  public  parks.  Plank  roofs 
are  quickly  put  up  and  linen  is  stretched  to 
protect  them  from  the  hot  sun. 

The  private  dwellings  are  soon  converted 
into  hospitals.  Officers  and  soldiers  are  there 
received  by  the  inhabitants. 

Some  of  these  last  run  through  the  streets 
anxiously  searching  for  a  physician  for  their 
guests.  Later,  others,  in  consternation,  go 
and  come  through  the  city,  insistently  beg- 
ging that  some  one  take  away  from  their 
houses  the  corpses  with  which  they  do  not 
know  what  to  do. 

A  number  of  French  surgeons,  having  re- 
mained in  Castiglione,  aided  by  young  Italian 
physicians  and  by  hospital  orderlies,  dress 
and  bandage  the  wounds. 

But  all  this  is  very  insufficient. 

The  number  of  convoys  of  wounded  be- 
comes so  great  during  Saturday  that  the  ad- 
ministration, the  citizens  and  the  few  sol- 
diers left  in  Castiglione  are  incapable  of 
caring  for  so  much  misery. 

Then,  melancholy  scenes  occur.  There  is 
water;  there  is  food;  and  nevertheless  the 

26 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

wounded  are  dying  of  hunger  and  thirst. 
There  is  much  lint,  but  not  enough  hands  to 
put  it  on  the  wounds!  The  greater  number 
of  the  army  of  physicians  must  go  to  Cav- 
riana;  the  hospital  orderlies  make  mistakes, 
and  hands  are  lacking  at  this  critical  mo- 
ment. 

A  voluntary  service,  good  or  bad,  must  be 
organized.  But  this  is  difficult  in  the  midst 
of  such  disorder,  to  which  is  added  a  panic 
of  the  Castiglionians,  which  results  in  aggra- 
vating the  misery  of  the  wounded.  This 
panic  is  caused  by  a  very  insignificant  cir- 
cumstance. 

As  each  corps  of  the  French  army  had 
recovered  itself,  after  taking  up  its  position, 
on  the  day  after  the  battle,  convoys  of  pris- 
oners were  formed  who  were  sent  to  Brescia, 
through  Castiglione  and  Montechiaro.  The 
inhabitants  took  one  band  of  captives  coming 
from  Cavriana  escorted  by  hussars,  for  the 
Austrian  army  returning  in  force.  Alarm 
was  given  by  the  frightened  peasants,  by  the 
assistant  conductors  of  the  baggage,  by 
itinerant  merchants  who  follow  the  troops 
in  a  campaign. 

Immediately  all  the  houses  are  closed,  the 
inhabitants  barricading  themselves  in  their 
homes,  burning  the  tri-color  flags  which  had 

27 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

adorned  their  windows,  hiding  themselves 
in  the  cellars  or  the  attics.  Some  run  into 
the  fields  with  their  wives  and  children 
carrying  with  them  their  most  valuable  pos- 
sessions. Others,  less  frightened  and  more 
sagacious,  remain  at  home,  but  take  in  the 
first  Austrian  wounded  upon  whom  they  lay 
their  hands  and  overwhelm  them  with  kind- 
ness and  care. 

In  the  streets,  on  the  roads,  blocked  by 
wagonloads  of  wounded,  by  convoys  of  sup- 
plies, are  rapid  transport  wagons,  horses  fly- 
ing in  all  directions,  amid  cries  of  fear,  of 
anger  and  of  pain.  Baggage  wagons  are 
overturned,  bread  and  biscuits  fall  into  the 
gutter.  The  drivers  detach  the  horses, 
dashing  away  with  hanging  bridles  on  the 
road  to  Brescia,  spreading  the  alarm  as  they 
go.  They  collide  with  carts  of  provisions 
and  convoys  of  wounded.  These  latter,  trod- 
den under  foot  and  frenzied  with  terror,  beg 
to  be  taken  with  them.  In  the  city  some  of 
them  deaf  to  all  orders  tear  away  their  band- 
ages, go  staggering  out  of  the  churches,  into 
the  streets  where  they  are  jostled  and  bruised 
and  finally  fall  from  exhaustion  and  pain. 


V 


What  agonies !    What  suffering  during  the 
28 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

days  of  June  twenty-fifth,  twenty-sixth  and 
twenty-seventh ! 

Wounds  poisoned  by  heat,  by  dust  and  by 
lack  of  water  and  care,  have  become  in- 
tensely painful. 

Suffocating  stenches  pollute  the  air  in 
spite  of  efforts  to  keep  in  good  condition 
these  local  hospitals. 

Every  quarter  of  an  hour  the  convoys  sent 
to  Castiglione  are  bringing  new  loads  of 
wounded.  The  insufficiency  in  the  number 
of  assistants,  of  hospital  orderlies,  of  serv- 
ants is  cruelly  felt. 

In  spite  of  the  activity  of  the  Commissary 
Department,  which  is  organizing  transporta- 
tion to  Brescia  by  means  of  ox-carts ;  in  spite 
of  the  spontaneous  care  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Castiglione,  who  transport  the  sick,  the 
departures  are  much  less  numerous  than  the 
arrivals,  and  the  crowding  grows  unceas- 
ingly greater. 

On  the  stone  floors  of  the  churches  of 
Castiglione  are  placed,  side  by  side,  men  of 
every  nation.  French,  Germans,  Slavs  and 
Arabs  are  temporarily  crowded  to  the  most 
remote  part  of  the  chapels.  Many  have  no 
longer  the  strength  to  move  themselves  and 
cannot  move  or  stir  in  the  narrow  space 
where  they  are  lying.  Oaths,  blasphemies 

29 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

and  cries  which  can  be  interpreted  by  no  ex- 
pression, are  sounding  beneath  the  arches  of 
the  sanctuaries. 

"Ah,  sir,  how  I  suffer!"  say  to  me  some 
of  these  poor  fellows.  "We  are  abandoned, 
left  to  die  miserably,  and  yet  we  fought 
bravely !"  They  can  get  no  rest,  in  spite  of 
the  nights  they  have  passed  in  sleeplessness 
and  long-endured  fatigue.  In  their  distress 
they  beg  for  help  which  is  not  given.  Some, 
in  despair,  roll  in  convulsions  which  will 
end  in  tetanus  and  death.  Others,  believing 
that  the  cold  water  poured  on  their  festered 
wounds  produce  worms,  which  appear  in 
great  numbers,  refuse  to  have  the  bandages 
moistened.  Others  still,  whose  wounds  were 
dressed  at  the  improvised  hospitals  on  the 
battle-fields,  are  given  no  further  attention 
during  the  halt  they  are  obliged  to  make  in 
Castiglione,  and  as  these  bandages  are  very 
tight,  in  view  of  the  roughness  of  the  trans- 
portation and  have  not  been  changed,  they 
are  suffering  veritable  tortures. 

These,  whose  faces  are  black  with  flies, 
with  which  the  air  is  infested  and  which 
cling  to  their  wounds,  cast  on  all  sides  dis- 
tracted glances.  But  no  one  notices.  On 
these,  the  cloaks,  shirts,  flesh  and  blood  form 
a  compact  mass  that  cannot  be  removed. 

30 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

Here,  lies  a  soldier  totally  disfigured;  his 
tongue  hanging  far  out  of  his  broken  jaws. 
He  stirs  and  wishes  to  rise.  I  moisten  his 
dried  palate  and  hardened  tongue.  Seizing  a 
handful  of  lint  I  soak  it  in  a  bucket  and 
squeeze  the  water  from  this  improvised 
sponge  in  the  formless  opening  which  is  in 
the  place  of  his  mouth. 

There,  is  an  unfortunate  man  a  part  of 
whose  face,  the  nose,  lips  and  chin  have 
been  cut  away  by  the  stroke  of  a  sword.  In- 
capable of  speech,  half  blind,  he  makes  signs 
with  his  hands,  and  by  that  heartrending 
pantomime,  accompanied  by  guttural  sounds, 
draws  attention  to  himself.  I  give  him  a 
drink  by  dropping  gently  on  his  blood- 
covered  face  a  little  pure  water. 

A  third,  with  a  cleft  head,  expires,  his 
blood  spreading  over  the  stone  floor  of  the 
church.  He  presents  a  horrible  sight.  His 
companions  in  misfortune  push  him  with 
their  feet,  for  he  incommodes  the  passage. 
I  protect  his  last  moments  and  cover  with  a 
handkerchief  his  poor  head  which  he  still 
feebly  moves. 

Although  every  house  has  become  an  in- 
firmary, and  every  family  has  dedicated  it- 
self to  nursing  the  wounded  officers,  that  it 
has  gathered  in,  nevertheless  I  succeed  by 

81 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

Sunday  morning  in  collecting  a  certain  num- 
ber of  women  of  the  people,  who  assist,  as 
best  they  can,  in  the  efforts  made  to  help  so 
many  thousands  of  wounded  men  who  are 
without  succor.  Food  must  be  given,  and 
above  all,  drink,  to  the  men  who  literally  are 
dying  from  hunger  and  thirst.  Wounds  must 
be  bandaged,  blood-stained  bodies,  covered 
all  over  with  dirt  and  vermin,  must  be 
washed,  and  all  this  must  be  done  in  the  ex- 
tremely hot  weather,  in  the  midst  of  the 
suffocating,  nauseating  stench,  and  of  groans 
and  cries  of  pain. 

Nevertheless,  a  little  group  of  volunteers 
is  formed.  I  organize,  well  as  I  can,  aid  in 
the  section  which  seems  to  be  the  most  with- 
out care,  and  I  choose  one  of  the  churches  of 
Castiglione,  called  Chiesa  Maggiore. 

Nearly  five  hundred  soldiers  are  crowded 
together  on  the  straw,  about  one  hundred 
others,  suffering  and  groaning,  are  lying  in 
the  public  park  before  the  church. 

In  the  church  the  women  of  Lombardy  go 
from  one  to  the  other  with  jars  and  pitchers 
full  of  clear  water,  which  serves  to  appease 
the  thirst  and  to  bathe  the  wounds.  Some 
of  these  improvised  nurses  are  good-hearted 
old  women,  others  are  charming  young  girls. 
Their  gentleness,  goodness,  compassion,  and 

32 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

their  attentive  care  restores  a  little  courage 
to  the  wounded. 

The  boys  of  the  neighborhood  come  and 
go  between  the  church  and  the  nearby 
springs  with  buckets,  pitchers  and  jars. 

The  distribution  of  water  is  followed  by 
that  of  bouillon  and  soup,  of  which  the  serv- 
ants  of  the   Commissary   Department  are  * 
obliged  to  cook  a  marvelous  quantity. 

Thick  bundles  of  lint  are  placed  here  and 
there.  Every  one  can  use  it  freely;  but 
bandages,  linen  and  shirts  are  lacking,  and 
one  can  hardly  procure  the  most  necessary 
articles.  I  purchase,  however,  some  new 
shirts  by  the  aid  of  those  kind-hearted 
women  who  have  already  given  all  their  old 
linen;  and,  on  Monday,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, I  send  my  coachman  to  Brescia  to  bring 
back  supplies.  He  returns  after  some  hours 
with  his  cabriolet  loaded  with  sponges,  linen, 
pins,  cigars,  tobacco,  camomile,  mallow,  sam- 
buca,  oranges,  sugar  and  lemons. 

This  makes  it  possible  to  give  refreshing 
lemonade,  wash  the  wounds  with  mallow- 
water,  put  on  warm  compresses  and  renew 
the  material  of  the  bandages. 

In  the  meantime  we  have  gained  some  re- 
cruits, who  help  us.  The  first  is  an  old  naval 
officer,  then  some  English  tourists,  who,  de- 

33 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

siring  to  see  everything,  have  entered  the 
church,  and  whom  we  keep  almost  by  force. 
Two  other  Englishmen,  on  the  contrary, 
show  themselves  desirous  to  help.  They  dis- 
tribute cigars  to  the  Austrians.  An  Italian 
priest,  three  or  four  travelers,  a  Swiss  mer- 
chant from  Neuchatel,  a  Parisian  journalist, 
who  afterwards  takes  charge  of  the  relief  in 
the  adjacent  church,  and  some  officers  whose 
company  has  received  orders  to  remain  in 
Castiglione,  also  aid  us. 

But  soon  some  of  those  voluntary  nurses 
go  away,  not  being  able  to  bear  the  sight  of 
this  suffering.  The  priest  follows  their  ex- 
ample, but  he  reappears,  however,  with  deli- 
cate kindness  to  make  us  smell  aromatic 
herbs  and  bottles  of  salts.  A  tourist,  op- 
pressed at  the  sight  of  these  living  debris, 
swooned  from  emotion.  The  merchant  from 
Neuchatel  perseveres  for  two  days,  bandag- 
ing wounds  and  writing  for  the  dying  letters 
of  farewell  to  their  families.  We  are  obliged 
to  quiet  the  compassionate  excitement  of  a 
Belgian,  fearing  that  he  will  have  an  attack 
of  burning  fever. 

Some  men  of  the  detachment,  left  to  gar- 
rison the  city,  try  to  help  their  comrades,  but 
cannot  endure  the  sight  which  breaks  down 
their  courage,  striking  too  keenly  upon  their 

34 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

imagination.  Nevertheless,  a  corporal  of  the 
engineer  corps,  wounded  at  Magenta,  almost 
restored  to  health  and  about  to  return  to  his 
battalion,  but  whose  orders  leave  him  a  few 
days  of  liberty,  aids  us  with  courage  and 
perseverance. 

The  French  Commissary,  remaining  in 
Castiglione,  finally  grants,  on  my  insistence, 
authority  to  utilize  for  service  in  the  hospi- 
tals, some  healthy  prisoners,  and  three  or 
four  Austrian  physicians  who  aid  the  efforts 
of  the  few  surgeons  left  in  Castiglione. 

A  German  physician  remaining  volun- 
tarily on  the  battle-field  to  care  for  the  sol- 
diers, dedicates  himself  to  the  injured  of 
both  armies.  After  three  days  the  Commis- 
sary sends  him  back  to  Mantua  to  rejoin  his 
compatriots. 

"Do  not  leave  me  to  die,"  exclaim  some  of 
these  agonized  men  seizing  my  hand  in  des- 
pair, but  their  death  is  not  long  delayed. 

"Ah,  sir,  if  you  would  write  to  my  father, 
that  he  might  console  my  poor  mother !"  said 
to  me,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  a  corporal 
named  Mazuet,  scarcely  twenty  years  old.  I 
noted  down  the  address  of  his  parents  and 
a  few  minutes  later  he  had  ceased  to  live. 
The  parents,  who  dwelt  on  rue  d'  Alger,  in 
Lyons,  and  of  whom  this  young  man,  enlisted 
35 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

as  a  volunteer,  was  the  only  son,  received  no 
other  information  about  their  child  than  that 
which  I  sent  to  them.  He  very  probably, 
like  so  many  others,  has  been  enscribed, 
"disappeared." 

An  old  sergeant,  decorated  with  many 
chevrons,  repeated  with  profound  melan- 
choly and  an  air  of  conviction  full  of  bitter- 
ness :  "If  some  one  had  cared  for  me  sooner, 
I  should  have  lived,  whereas,  this  evening  I 
will  die."  That  evening  he  died. 

"I  do  not  want  to  die!  I  do  not  want  to 
die!"  cries,  with  savage  energy,  a  grenadier 
of  the  guard,  full  of  strength  and  health 
three  days  before,  but  who,  mortally 
wounded,  and  feeling  sure  that  his  minutes 
are  irrevocably  numbered,  fights  against  this 
dark  certainty.  I  talk  to  him,  he  listens  to 
me,  and  this  man,  calmed,  soothed,  consoled, 
finally  resigns  himself  to  die  with  the  sim- 
plicity of  a  child. 

In  the  back  of  the  church,  on  the  steps  of 
an  altar,  a  Chasseur  d'  Af  rique  lies  on  straw. 
Three  balls  have  struck  him,  one  on  the  right 
side,  one  on  the  left  shoulder,  the  third  re- 
mained in  the  right  leg.  It  is  Sunday,  and 
he  asserts  that  he  has  eaten  nothing  since 
Friday.  He  is  covered  with  dried  mud 
flecked  with  blood,  his  clothing  is  torn;  his 

36 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

shirt  is  in  tatters.  After  I  had  washed  his 
wounds,  given  him  a  little  bouillon  and  wrap- 
ped him  in  covers,  he  put  my  hand  to  his  lips 
with  an  expression  of  unspeakable  gratitude. 
Later  we  were  able  to  send  him  to  a  better 
hospital. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  church  is  a  Hun- 
garian who  cries  unceasingly,  calling  in 
heartrending  tones  for  a  physician.  His 
back  and  his  shoulders,  ploughed  with  grape- 
shot,  appear  as  if  torn  by  iron  hooks  and  are 
one  mass  of  quivering,  raw  flesh.  The  rest 
of  his  body  is  swollen,  green  and  black — 
horrible.  He  can  neither  lie  down  nor  sit  up. 
I  dip  some  packages  of  lint  in  cool  water  and 
try  to  make  a  cushion  for  him,  but  gangrene 
soon  carries  him  off. 

A  little  further  on  lies  a  dying  Zouave 
who  is  weeping  bitter  tears,  and  we  console 
him  as  if  he  were  a  little  child.  The  pre- 
ceding fatigue,  the  lack  of  food  and  repose, 
the  intensity  of  the  pain,  the  fear  of  dying 
without  help,  excites  even  in  these  brave  sol- 
diers a  nervous  sensibility  which  betrays 
itself  by  sobs.  One  of  their  chief  thoughts, 
when  they  are  not  suffering  too  cruelly,  is  the 
memory  of  their  mother,  and  the  fear  of  the 
grief  she  will  experience  on  learning  of  their 
fate.  On  the  corpse  of  a  soldier  we  found, 

37 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

hanging  from  his  neck,  a  medallion  contain- 
ing the  portrait  of  an  aged  woman,  without 
doubt  his  mother,  which  with  his  left  hand 
he  was  pressing  on  his  heart. 

In  the  part  nearest  the  great  door  of  the 
church  Maggiore  lie,  now,  on  straw,  envel- 
oped in  covers,  about  a  hundred  French  non- 
commissioned officers  and  soldiers.  They  are 
ranged  in  two  nearly  parallel  ranks,  between 
which  one  can  pass.  Their  wounds  have 
been  dressed.  The  distribution  of  soup  has 
taken  place.  They  are  quiet.  They  follow 
me  with  their  eyes;  all  heads  turn  to  the 
left  if  I  go  to  the  left,  to  the  right  when  I  go 
to  the  right.  Sincere  thanks  are  visible  on 
their  astonished  faces.  "One  can  easily  see 
that  he  is  a  Parisian/'  say  some.  "No,"  re- 
tort others,  "he  seems  to  be  a  Southerner." 
"Truly,  sir,  are  you  not  from  Bordeaux?" 
asks  a  third,  and  each  wishes  that  I  might  be 
from  his  city  or  province.  I  met  afterwards 
some  of  these  wounded  men,  who  had  become 
crippled  invalids.  Recognizing  me,  they 
stopped  to  express  their  gratitude  because 
I  had  nursed  them  in  Castiglione.  "We 
called  you  'the  gentleman  in  white/"  said 
one,  in  his  picturesque  language,  "for  you 
were  always  dressed  entirely  in  white.  It 
is  true  the  weather  did  not  fail  to  be  hot." 
38 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

The  resignation  of  the  poor  soldiers  was 
often  touching;  they  suffered  without  com- 
plaint, they  died  humbly  and  silently. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  church,  some 
wounded  Austrian  prisoners  fear  to  receive 
care  which  they  distrust.  They  angrily  tear 
off  their  bandages,  opening  their  bleeding 
wounds.  Others  remain  silent,  dejected,  im- 
passive. But  the  greater  number  are  far 
from  being  insensible  to  kindness  and  their 
faces  express  their  thanks.  One  of  them, 
about  nineteen  years  of  age,  who  with  forty 
of  his  compatriots  is  pushed  into  the  deep 
recesses  of  the  church,  has  been  without  food 
for  two  days.  He  has  lost  one  eye,  he  trem- 
bles with  fever,  he  is  scarcely  able  to  speak 
or  to  drink  a  little  bouillon.  Our  nursing  re- 
vives him ;  twenty-four  hours  later  when  we 
are  able  to  send  him  to  Brescia,  he  leaves  us 
with  sorrow,  almost  with  despair,  pressing 
to  his  lips  the  hands  of  the  good-hearted 
women  of  Castiglione,  whom  he  entreats  not 
to  abandon  him. 

Another  prisoner,  a  prey  to  a  burning 
fever,  draws  attention  to  himself.  He  is  not 
yet  twenty  years  of  age  and  his  hair  is  al- 
ready perfectly  white ;  it  became  white  dur- 
ing the  battle,  as  his  wounded  comrades  near 
whom  he  lies  assure  us. 

39 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

The  women  of  Castiglione,  seeing  that  I 
make  no  distinction  in  nationality,  imitate 
my  example,  showing  the  same  kindness  to 
all  these  men  of  such  different  origin  and 
who  are  to  them  all  equally  strangers.  "Tutti 
Fratelli,"  they  repeat  with  compassion.  "All 
are  brothers/' 

Honor  to  these  compassionate  women,  to 
these  young  girls  of  Castiglione !  As  devoted 
as  they  are  modest,  they  give  way  neither 
before  fatigue,  nor  disgust,  nor  sacrifice; 
nothing  repels,  wearies  or  disheartens  them. 

For  the  soldier  recommencing  the  every- 
day life  of  the  campaign,  after  the  fatigue 
and  emotions  of  a  battle  like  that  of  Sol- 
ferino,  the  memories  of  his  family  become 
more  strong  than  ever.  That  mental  state  is 
vividly  described  by  the  following  lines  from 
an  officer  writing  from  Volta  to  his  brother 
in  France: 

"You  cannot  imagine  how  the  soldiers  are 
moved  when  they  catch  sight  of  the  baggage- 
master  who  distributes  the  letters  to  the 
army;  because  he  brings  to  us,  understand, 
news  from  France,  from  our  native  land, 
from  our  parents,  from  our  friends.  Each 
one  listens,  watches,  and  stretches  to  him 
eager  hands.  The  happy  men,  who  receive 
a  letter — open  it  hurriedly  and  devour  it  im- 

40 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

mediately;  the  rest,  deprived  of  this  happi- 
ness, depart  with  heavy  heart  and  isolate 
themselves  in  order  to  think  about  those  so 
far  away. 

"Sometimes  a  name  is  called  to  which  there 
is  no  response.  The  men  glance  at  each 
other,  they  question  among  themselves,  they 
wait.  'Dead/  murmurs  a  voice,  and  the 
baggage-master  files  the  letter  away  and  re- 
turns it  unopened  to  the  writer.  They  had 
rejoiced  when  they  sent  it,  and  had  said  to 
one  another.  'He  will  be  happy  to  receive 
it!'  When  they  see  it  returned,  their  poor 
hearts  will  break/' 

The  streets  of  Castiglione  are  quieter; 
the  deaths  and  the  departures  have  left 
vacancies. 

In  spite  of  the  arrival  of  new  wagons  full 
of  wounded,  order,  little  by  little,  is  estab- 
lished and  regular  attendance  commences. 

The  convoys  from  Castiglione  to  Brescia 
are  more  frequent.  They  consist  principally 
of  hospital  wagons  and  heavy  carts  which, 
constantly  carrying,  to  the  French  Commis- 
sary Department,  gun  supplies,  and  provi- 
sions, go  back  empty  to  Brescia. 

They  are  drawn  by  oxen,  walking  slowly 
under  the  fierce  sun  and  through  the  thick 
dust  in  which  the  pedestrian  sinks  to  his 

41 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

ankles.  These  uncomfortable  wagons  are 
covered  with  branches  of  trees  which  very 
imperfectly  protect  from  the  rays  of  the 
coming  sun.  The  wounded,  piled  up,  one 
may  say,  one  upon  another.  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  the  torments  of  this  long  ride. 

In  these  wagons  some  groan,  others  call 
for  their  mother;  there  are  the  ravings  and 
delirium  of  fever,  sometimes  curses  and 
blasphemies. 

The  least  interest  shown  to  these  unhappy 
men,  a  kind  salutation,  gives  them  pleasure 
and  they  return  it  at  once  with  expressions 
of  gratitude. 

In  all  the  villages  along  the  road  leading 
to  Brescia,  the  women  sitting  before  their 
doors,  silently  prepare  lint.  The  Communal 
authorities  have  had  prepared,  drinks,  bread 
and  nourishment.  When  a  convoy  arrives 
the  women  of  the  village  go  to  the  wagons, 
wash  the  wounds,  renew  the  lint  compresses, 
which  they  moisten  with  fresh  water.  They 
pour  spoonfuls  of  bouillon,  wine  or  lemonade 
in  the  mouths  of  those  who  have  not  the 
strength  to  raise  their  heads  or  extend  their 
arms. 

In  Montechiaro,  three  small  hospitals  are 
under  the  care  of  the  women  of  the  people, 
who  nurse  with  as  much  wisdom  as  kind- 

42 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

heartedness.  In  Guidizzolo,  about  one  thou- 
sand invalids  are  placed  in  a  large  castle.  In 
Volta,  some  hundreds  of  Austrians  are  re- 
ceived in  an  old  monastery  which  has  been 
transformed  into  barracks.  In  Cavriana, 
they  establish  in  the  church  a  number  of 
Hungarians  who  had  been  forty-eight  hours 
without  help.  In  the  field-hospital  of  the 
headquarters,  chloroform  is  used  in  operat- 
ing; this  produces,  in  the  Austrians,  almost 
immediate  insensibility,  and  in  the  French 
nervous  contractions,  accompanied  by  ex- 
altation before  unconsciousness  results. 

The  people  of  Cavriana  are  entirely  with- 
out provisions ;  the  soldiers  of  the  guard  feed 
them  by  sharing  with  them  their  rations  and 
their  mess ;  the  country  has  been  laid  waste, 
and  almost  everything  edible,  cattle,  garden 
produce,  etc.,  has  been  sold  to  the  Austrian 
troops.  The  French  army  has  campaign 
food  in  abundance,  but  only  with  difficulty 
can  it  procure  the  butter,  meat  and  vegeta- 
bles necessary  for  the  ordinary  food  of 
soldiers. 

The  wounded  of  the  Sardinian  army,  who 
have  been  transported  to  Desenzano,  Rivol- 
tella,  Lonato,  and  Pozzolenzo,  are  in  condi- 
tions less  disadvantageous  than  the  French 
and  Austrians  temporarily  established  in 

43 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

Castiglione — Desenzano  and  Rivoltella  not 
having  been  occupied  at  a  few  days  interval 
by  two  different  armies.  Food  is  still  to  be 
found  there;  the  hospitals  are  better  kept 
and  the  inhabitants,  less  troubled,  actively 
support  the  nursing  service.  The  sick  are 
sent  to  Brescia  in  good  carts  provided  with 
thick  beds  of  hay.  They  are  protected  from 
the  sun  by  arches  of  interlaced  foliage  which 
support  a  strong  linen  cover. 

The  feeling  that  one  has  of  his  own  insuffi- 
ciency in  such  solemn  circumstances,  is  an 
inexpressible  suffering.  It  is  extremely  pain- 
ful to  feel  that  you  cannot  help  all  those  who 
lie  before  you,  because  of  their  great  num- 
ber, or  aid  those  who  appeal  to  you  with  sup- 
plications. Long  hours  pass  before  you 
reach  the  most  unfortunate.  You  are  stop- 
ped by  one,  petitioned  by  another,  all  equally 
worthy  of  pity.  Embarrassed  at  each  step 
by  the  multitude  of  miserable  sufferers  who 
press  about  you,  who  surround  you,  who  beg 
support  and  help.  Then,  why  turn  to  the  left, 
while  on  the  right  are  so  many  men  who  will 
soon  die  without  a  word  of  consolation, 
without  even  a  single  glass  of  water  to  ap- 
pease their  burning  thirst?  The  thought  of 
the  importance  of  one  human  life  that  one 
might  be  able  to  save ;  the  desire  to  alleviate 

44 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

the  tortures  of  so  many  unfortunate  and  to 
restore  their  courage,  the  forced  and  unceas- 
ing activity  which  one  imposes  on  himself 
in  such  moments,  gives  a  supreme  energy,  a 
thirst  to  carry  help  to  the  greatest  number 
possible.  One  becomes  no  longer  moved  by 
the  thousand  scenes  of  this  terrible  tragedy, 
one  passes,  with  indifference,  before  the  most 
hideously  disfigured  corpses  and  glances  al- 
most coldly  at  sights,  so  much  more  horrible 
than  those  already  described,  that  the  pen 
refuses  absolutely  to  depict  them ;  but  it  hap- 
pens, sometimes,  that  the  heart  suddenly 
breaks,  struck  all  at  once  by  a  poignant  sad- 
ness at  the  sight  of.  a  single  incident,  an 
isolated  fact,  an  unexpected  detail,  which 
goes  directly  to  the  soul,  draws  out  our  sym- 
pathy, moves  the  most  impressionable  cords 
of  our  being  and  brings  a  realization  of  the 
whole  horror  of  this  tragedy. 

Worn  out  with  fatigue,  but  unable  to  sleep, 
I  have  my  little  carriage  harnessed  on  the 
afternoon  of  Monday,  the  twenty-seventh, 
and  go  away  about  6  o'clock  to  breathe  in  the 
open  air  the  freshness  of  the  evening  and  to 
find  a  little  repose  by  escaping,  for  a  moment, 
from  the  dismal  sights  which  surround  me 
on  every  side  in  Castiglione. 

It  was  a  favorable  time,  for  no  movement 

45 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

of  the  troops  had  been  ordered  during  the 
day. 

Calm  had  succeeded  the  terrible  agitation 
of  the  previous  days.  Here  and  there  are 
visible  pools  of  dried  blood  which  redden  the 
battlefield.  One  meets  newly  turned  earth, 
white  with  freshly  strewn  lime,  indicating 
the  place  where  repose  the  victims  of  the 
twenty-fourth. 

At  Solferino,  whose  square  tower  has 
proudly  dominated  for  some  centuries  that 
country,  where  for  the  third  time  have  just 
met  two  of  the  greatest  powers  of  modern 
days,  one  still  picks  up  much  debris  which 
covers,  even  in  the  cemeteries,  the  crosses 
and  the  bloody  stones  of  the  tombs.  The 
ground  is  strewn  with  swords,  guns,  haver- 
sacks, cartridge  boxes,  tin  boxes,  shakos,  hel- 
mets and  belts.  Almost  everything  is  twisted, 
torn  and  broken. 

I  arrive  at  Cavriana  at  about  9  o'clock  in 
the  evening. 

The  train  of  war  surrounding  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Emperor  of  France  is  an 
imposing  sight. 

I  seek  the  Marshal,  Duke  of  Magenta,  with 
whom  I  am  personally  acquainted. 

Not  knowing  exactly  where  his  army  corps 
is  encamped,  I  stop  my  little  carriage  on  the 

46 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

park  opposite  the  house  occupied,  since  Fri- 
day evening,  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  I 
find  myself  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  a  group 
of  generals,  sitting  on  straw  chairs  and 
wooden  stools,  smoking  their  cigars  and  in- 
haling the  fresh  air  before  the  improvised 
palace  of  the  Sovereign. 

While  I  inquire  about  the  location  of  Mar- 
shal MacMahon,  several  generals,  very  sus- 
picious of  my  arrival,  question  the  corporal, 
wounded  at  Magenta,  who  begged  permis- 
sion to  accompany  me  on  this  excursion 
through  the  armies  as  his  rank  would  ensure 
me  safe  conduct.  Sitting  beside  the  coach- 
man, he  gives  me,  in  a  certain  degree,  official 
character.  The  generals  desire  to  know  who 
I  am  and  to  discover  the  object  of  the  mis- 
sion with  which  they  suppose  I  am  charged, 
for  they  cannot  imagine  that  a  simple  trav- 
eler would  dare  to  risk  himself  alone  in  the 
midst  of  the  camps  at  such  a  time. 

The  corporal,  who  knows  nothing,  remains 
impenetrable,  while  he  replies  respectfully  to 
their  questions.  Their  curiosity  increases 
considerably  when  they  see  me  leave  for 
Borghetto  where  the  Duke  of  Magenta  is. 

The  second  corps,  commanded  by  the  Mar- 
shal, has  been  moved  from  Cavriana  to  Cas- 
tellaro,  which  is  at  a  distance  of  five  kilo- 

47 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

meters;  its  divisions  are  encamped  on  the 
right  and  left  of  the  road  leading  from  Cas- 
tellaro  to  Monzambano.  The  Marshal,  him- 
self, with  his  staff,  occupies  Borghetto. 

Although  the  night  has  arrived,  we  con- 
tinue our  way.  The  fires  of  the  bivouac,  fed 
by  whole  trees,  and  the  lighted  tents  of  the 
officers,  present  a  picturesque  appearance. 
The  last  murmurings  of  a  sleeping,  yet 
watchful,  camp  soothes  a  little  my  excited 
imagination.  Under  this  beautiful  star-lit 
sky,  a  solemn  silence  at  last  takes  the  place  of 
the  noises  and  emotions  of  the  preceding 
days.  I  breathe  with  delight  the  pure  sweet 
air  of  a  splendid  Italian  night. 

Having  obtained  only  incomplete  informa- 
tion, we  mistake  our  way  and  follow  a  road 
leading  to  Volta.  We  are  about  to  fall  into 
the  army  corps  of  General  Neil,  made  Mar- 
shal three  days  before,  which  is  encamped 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 

My  Italian  coachman  is  so  frightened  at 
the  idea  of  being  very  near  the  Austrian 
lines  that,  more  than  once,  I  am  obliged  to 
take  the  reins  from  his  hands  and  give  them 
to  the  corporal  seated  beside  him  on  the  box. 
The  poor  man  had  run  away  from  Mantua 
several  days  before  to  save  himself  from  the 
Austrian  service,  taking  refuge  in  Brescia, 

48 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

he  hired  out  as  a  coachman.  His  fears  grow 
greater  on  hearing  the  discharge  of  a  distant 
gun,  fired  by  some  one  who  disappears  in  the 
underbrush.  After  the  retreat  of  the  Aus- 
trian army,  many  of  the  deserters  hid  them- 
selves in  the  cellars  of  the  houses  of  the  vil- 
lages, abandoned  by  their  owners  and  par- 
tially plundered.  In  order  not  to  be  captured, 
they,  at  first,  ate  and  drank  in  those  under- 
ground retreats,  then,  being  at  the  end  of 
their  resources  and  pressed  by  hunger,  but 
well  armed,  they  ventured  out  at  night. 

The  unhappy  and  terrified  Mantuan  can 
no  longer  guide  his  horse.  He  constantly 
turns  his  head,  he  casts  affrighted  glances  at 
all  the  thickets  along  the  road,  at  all  the 
hedges  and  hovels,  fearing,  any  moment,  to 
see  emerge  some  hidden  Austrians. 

His  fears  increase  at  every  turn  of  the 
road  and  he  almost  swoons,  when,  in  the 
silence  of  the  night  we  are  surprised  with  a 
shot  from  a  guard,  whom  we  do  not  see  on 
account  of  the  darkness.  His  terror  knows 
no  limit  when  we  almost  collide  with  a  large, 
wide  open  umbrella  which  we  vaguely  catch 
sight  of  at  the  side  of  the  road  near  a  path 
leading  to  Volta.  That  poor  umbrella,  rid- 
dled with  bullets  and  balls  was,  probably,  a 
part  of  the  baggage  of  some  canteen-woman 

49 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

who  had  lost  it  during  the  storm  of  the 
twenty-fourth. 

We  were  retracing  the  road  to  reach 
Borghetto.  It  was  after  11  o'clock.  We 
were  making  the  horse  gallop  and  our  modest 
vehicle  rolled  across  the  space,  almost  with- 
out noise,  on  to  the  Strato  Cavallara,  when 
cries  of  "Who  goes  there?  Who  goes  there? 
Who  goes  there?  or  I  fire/'  came  like  a  bolt 
from  the  mouth  of  an  invisible  sentinel. 
"France,"  replies  immediately  a  loud  voice, 
which  adds,  in  giving  his  rank:  "Corporal 
in  the  First  Engineer  Corps,  Company  Sev- 
enth." "Go  on,"  is  the  reply.  Without  this 
presence  of  mind  of  the  corporal  we  would 
have  received  a  shot  almost  in  the  face. 

Finally,  at  a  quarter  before  twelve  we 
reach,  without  other  adventure,  the  first 
houses  of  Borghetto. 

All  is  dark  and  silent.  However,  a  light 
shines  on  the  ground  floor  of  a  house  on  the 
principal  street,  where  are  at  work  in  a  low 
room  the  accounting  officers.  Although  em- 
barrassed in  their  work  and  very  much 
astonished  at  our  appearance  at  such  an 
hour,  they  treat  us  very  kindly.  A  paymas- 
ter, Signor  Outrey,  gives  me  a  cordial  invita- 
tion to  be  his  guest.  His  orderly  brings  a 
mattress  on  which  I  throw  myself,  com- 
50 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

pletely  dressed,  to  rest  for  several  hours, 
after  drinking  some  excellent  bouillon,  which 
seems  to  me  the  more  delicious  as  I  am 
hungry  and  for  several  days  have  eaten  noth- 
ing even  passable.  I  can  sleep  quietly,  not 
being,  as  in  Castiglione,  suffocated  with 
fetid  exhalations  and  tormented  with  the 
flies,  which  though  satiated  with  corpses, 
attack  also  the  living. 

The  corporal  and  the  driver  settled  them- 
selves simply  in  the  carriage,  remaining  in 
the  street,  but  the  unfortunate  Mantuan,  al- 
ways in  great  terror,  could  not  shut  his  eyes 
during  the  whole  night  and  the  next  day  he 
was  more  dead  than  alive. 

Tuesday,  the  twenty-eighth,  at  six  in  the 
morning  I  was  received  most  kindly  by  Mar- 
shal MacMahon.  At  ten  o'clock  I  was  on  the 
way  to  Cavriana.  Soon  after  I  entered  the 
modest  house,  since  historic,  for  there  was 
lodged  the  Emperor  Napoleon. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  I  found 
myself  once  more  in  the  midst  of  the 
wounded  of  Castiglione,  who  expressed  their 
joy  at  seeing  me  again. 

The  thirtieth  of  June  I  was  in  Brescia. 

This  city,  so  charming  and  picturesque,  is 
transformed,  not  into  a  large  temporary 
shelter  for  the  wounded  like  Castiglione,  but 

51 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

into  a  vast  hospital.  Its  two  cathedrals,  its 
palaces,  its  churches,  its  monasteries,  its  col- 
leges, its  barracks,  in  a  word  all  its  buildings 
receive  the  victims  of  Solferino. 

Fifteen  thousand  beds,  of  some  sort,  have 
been  improvised  in  forty-eight  hours.  The 
inhabitants  have  done  more  than  was  ever 
done  before  under  similar  circumstances. 

In  the  centre  of  the  city  the  old  basilica, 
"il  Duomo  recchio,"  contains  a  thousand 
wounded.  The  people  come  to  them  in 
crowds,  women  of  every  class  bring  them 
quantities  of  oranges,  jellies,  biscuits  and 
delicacies.  The  humblest  widow  or  the  poor- 
est little  old  woman  believes  that  she  must 
present  her  tribute  of  sympathy  and  her 
modest  offering. 

Similar  scenes  occur  in  the  new  cathedral, 
a  magnificent  temple  of  white  marble,  where 
the  wounded  are  taken  by  the  hundreds.  It 
is  the  same  in  forty  other  buildings,  churches 
or  hospitals  which  contain  nearly  twenty 
thousand  wounded. 

The  municipality  of  Brescia  understood 
the  extraordinary  duty  imposed  upon  it  by 
such  grave  circumstances.  With  a  perma- 
nent existence  it  associates  with  itself  the 
best  men  of  the  town,  who  bring  to  Jt  eager 
co-operation. 

52 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

In  opening  a  monastery,  a  school,  a  church, 
the  municipality  created,  in  a  few  hours,  as 
if  by  magic,  hospitals  with  hundreds  of  beds, 
vast  kitchens,  improvised  laundries  for  linen 
and  everything  that  would  be  necessary. 

These  measures  were  taken  with  so  much 
courage  that,  after  a  few  days,  one  was  able 
to  admire  the  good  order  and  regular  man- 
agement of  these  hurriedly  arranged  hos- 
pitals. The  population  of  Brescia,  which 
was  forty  thousand,  was  suddenly  almost 
doubled  by  the  great  number  of  wounded  and 
sick.  The  physicians,  numbering  one  hun- 
dred and  forty,  displayed  great  self-devotion 
during  the  whole  duration  of  their  fatiguing 
service.  They  were  helped  by  the  medical 
students  and  some  volunteers.  Aid  commit- 
tees being  organized,  a  special  commission 
was  appointed  to  receive  donations  of  bed- 
ding, linen  and  provisions  of  all  kinds;  an- 
other commission  administered  the  depot  or 
central  store  house. 

In  the  large  rooms  of  the  hospitals,  the 
officers  are  ordinarily  separated  from  the  sol- 
diers. The  Austrians  are  not  mixed  with 
the  allies.  The  series  of  beds  are  all  alike, 
on  the  shelf  above  the  bed  of  each  soldier, 
his  uniform  and  military  cap  indicate  to 
which  branch  of  the  service  he  belongs. 
53 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

They  have  commenced  to  refuse  permis- 
sion for  the  crowd  to  enter,  it  embarrasses 
and  hinders  the  nurses. 

At  the  side  of  soldiers,  with  resigned  faces, 
are  others  who  murmur  and  complain.  The 
idea  of  an  amputation  scarcely  frightens  the 
French  soldier,  because  of  his  careless  na- 
ture, but  he  is  impatient  and  irritable;  the 
Austrian,  of  a  less  thoughtless  disposition, 
is  more  inclined  to  be  melancholy  in  his 
isolation. 

I  find  in  these  hospital  wards  some  of  our 
wounded  from  Castiglione.  They  are  better 
cared  for  now,  but  their  torments  are  not 
ended. 

Here,  is  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Imperial 
Flying  Guard,  wounded  at  Solferino.  Shot 
in  the  leg,  he  passed  several  days  at  Castig- 
lione, where  I  dressed  his  wounds  for  the 
first  time.  He  is  stretched  on  a  straw  mat- 
tress; the  expression  of  his  face  denotes 
profound  suffering;  his  eyes  are  hollow  and 
shining;  his  great  pallor  gives  evidence  that 
purulent  fever  has  set  in  to  complicate  and 
increase  the  gravity  of  his  condition ;  his  lips 
are  dry ;  his  voice  trembles ;  the  assurance  of 
the  brave  man  has  given  place  to  fear  and 
timidity;  care  even  unnerves  him;  he  is 
afraid  to  have  any  one  approach  his  poor 

54 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

injured  leg  which  the  gangrene  has  already 
attacked. 

A  French  surgeon,  who  makes  the  amputa- 
tions, passes  by  his  bed;  the  sick  man, 
whose  touch  is  like  burning  iron,  seizes  his 
hand  and  presses  it  in  his  own. 

"Do  not  hurt  me!  My  suffering  is  terri- 
ble!" he  cries. 

But  one  must  act,  and  without  delay. 
Twenty  other  wounded  must  be  operated  on 
during  the  same  morning,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  are  waiting  for  bandages.  One  has 
not  time  to  pity  a  single  case  nor  to  await 
the  end  of  his  hesitation.  The  surgeon,  cool 
and  resolute,  replies :  "Let  me  do  it."  Then 
he  rapidly  lifts  the  covering.  The  broken  leg 
is  swollen  double  its  natural  size ;  from  three 
places  flows  a  quantity  of  fetid  pus,  purple 
stains  prove  that  as  an  artery  has  been 
broken,  the  sole  remedy,  if  there  is  one,  is 
amputation. 

Amputation !  Terrible  word  for  this  poor 
young  man,  who  sees  before  him  no  other 
alternative  than  an  immediate  death  or  the 
miserable  life  of  a  cripple. 

He  has  no  time  to  prepare  himself  for  the 

last  decision,  and  trembling  with  anguish, 

he  cries  out  in  despair :    "Oh !    What  are  you 

going  to  do?"    The  surgeon  does  not  reply. 

55 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

"Nurse,  carry  him  away,  make  haste!"  he 
says.  But  a  heartrending  cry  bursts  from 
that  panting  breast;  the  unskilled  nurse  has 
seized  the  motionless,  yet  sensitive,  leg  much 
too  near  the  wound ;  the  broken  bones  pene- 
trating the  flesh,  has  caused  new  torments  to 
the  soldier  whose  hanging  leg  shakes  with 
the  jolts  of  the  transportation  to  the  operat- 
ing room. 

Fearful  procession!  It  seems  as  if  one 
were  leading  a  victim  to  death. 

He  lies  finally  on  the  operating  table. 
Nearby,  on  another  table,  a  linen  covers  the 
instruments.  The  surgeon,  occupied  with  his 
work,  hears  and  sees  only  his  operation.  A 
young  army  doctor  holds  the  arms  of  the 
patient,  while  the  nurse  seizes  the  healthy 
leg  and  draws  the  invalid  to  the  edge  of  the 
table.  At  this  the  frightened  man  shrieks: 
"Do  not  let  me  fall!"  and  he  seizes  convul- 
sively in  his  arms  the  young  physician,  ready 
to  support  him  and  who  pale  from  emotion 
is  himself  almost  equally  distressed. 

The  operator,  one  knee  on  the  floor  and  his 
hand  armed  with  the  terrible  knife,  places 
his  arm  about  the  gangrenous  limb  and  cuts 
the  skin  all  around.  A  piercing  cry  sounds 
through  the  hospital.  The  young  physician, 
face  to  face,  with  the  tormented  man  can  see 
56 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

on  his  contracted  features  every  detail  of  his 
atrocious  agony. 

"Courage,"  he  says,  in  a  low  tone  to  the 
soldier,  whose  hands  he  feels  gripping  his 
back,  "two  minutes  more  and  you  will  be 
saved." 

The  doctor  stands  up  again;  he  separates 
the  skin  from  the  muscles  which  it  covers, 
leaving  them  bare ;  as  he  draws  back  the  skin 
he  cuts  away  the  flesh,  then  returning  to  the 
attack,  with  a  vigorous  turn,  he  cuts  away 
every  muscle  to  the  bone ;  a  torrent  of  blood 
gushes  out  of  the  arteries,  just  opened,  cov- 
ering the  operator  and  flowing  down  on  to 
the  floor. 

Calm  and  expressionless,  the  rough  opera- 
tor does  not  speak  a  word ;  but,  suddenly,  in 
the  midst  of  the  silence  reigning  in  the  room, 
he  turns  in  anger  to  the  awkward  nurse,  re- 
proaching him  for  not  knowing  how  to  press 
on  the  arteries.  This  latter,  inexperienced, 
did  not  know  how  to  prevent  the  hemorrhage 
by  applying  his  thumb  properly  on  the 
bleeding  arteries. 

The  wounded  man,  overcome  by  suffering, 
articulates  feebly,  "Oh!  it  is  enough,  let  me 
die !"  and  a  cold  sweat  runs  down  his  face. 

But  he  must  bear  it  still  another  minute, — 
a  minute  which  seems  an  eternity. 

57 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

The  young  physician,  ever  full  of  sympa- 
thy, counts  the  seconds  as  he  watches  some- 
times the  operating  surgeon,  sometimes  the 
patient,  whose  courage  he  tries  to  sustain, 
saying  to  him:  "Only  one  minute  more!" 

Indeed,  the  moment  for  the  saw  has  come 
and  already  one  hears  the  grinding  of  the 
steel  as  it  penetrates  the  living  bone,  sepa- 
rating from  the  body  the  member  half 
gangrenous. 

But  the  pain  has  been  too  great  for  that 
weak,  exhausted  body;  the  groans  have 
ceased,  for  the  sick  man  has  swooned.  The 
surgeon,  who  is  no  longer  guided  by  his  cries 
and  his  groans,  fearing  that  this  silence  may 
be  that  of  death,  looks  at  him  uneasily  to 
assure  himself  that  he  has  not  expired. 

The  restoratives,  held  in  reserve,  succeed, 
with  difficulty,  in  reviving  his  dull,  half- 
closed,  vacant  eyes.  The  dying  man,  how- 
ever, seems  to  return  to  life,  he  is  weak  and 
shattered,  but  at  least  his  greatest  sufferings 
are  over. 

Imagine  such  an  operation  on  an  Austrian, 
understanding  neither  Italian  nor  French 
and  letting  himself  be  led  like  a  sheep  or  an 
ox  to  slaughter  without  being  able  to  ex- 
change one  word  with  his  well-meaning  tor- 
mentors !  The  French  meet  everywhere  with 

58 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

sympathy;  they  are  flattered,  pampered,  en- 
couraged ;  when  one  speaks  to  them  about  the 
battle  of  Solferino,  they  brighten  up  and 
discuss  it:  That  memory,  full  of  glory  for 
them;  drawing  their  thoughts  elsewhere 
than  on  themselves,  lessens  a  little  their  un- 
happiness.  But  the  Austrians  have  not  this 
good  fortune.  In  the  hospitals  where  they 
are  crowded,  I  insist  upon  seeing  them  and 
almost  by  force  enter  their  rooms.  With 
what  gratitude  these  good  men  welcome  my 
words  of  consolation  and  the  gift  of  a  little 
tobacco !  On  their  resigned  faces  is  depicted 
a  lively  gratitude,  which  they  do  not  know 
how  to  express.  Their  looks  tell  more  than 
any  word  of  thanks. 

Some  of  them  possess  two  or  three  paper 
florins,  a  small  fortune  for  them,  but  they 
cannot  change  this  modest  value  for  coins. 

The  officers  particularly  show  hearty  ap- 
preciation of  the  attentions  bestowed  upon 
them.  In  the  hospital  where  he  is  lodged, 
Prince  von  Isenburg  occupies  with  another 
German  prince,  a  comfortable  little  room. 

During  several  successive  days  I  dis- 
tribute, without  distinction  of  nationality, 
tobacco,  pipes  and  cigars  in  the  churches  and 
hospitals  where  the  odor  of  the  tobacco  les- 
sens a  little  the  nauseous  stench  produced 
59 


THE  ORIGIN  OP  THE  RED  CROSS 

by  the  crowding  of  so  many  patients  in 
suffocating  places.  Besides  that,  it  is  a  dis- 
traction, a  means  of  dispelling  the  fears  of 
the  wounded  before  the  amputation  of  a 
member;  not  a  few  are  operated  on  with  a 
pipe  in  the  mouth,  and  some  die  smoking. 

Finally  all  the  supply  of  tobacco  in  Brescia 
is  exhausted.  It  must  be  brought  from 
Milan. 

An  eminent  inhabitant  of  Brescia,  Signer 
Carlo  Borghetti,  takes  me  in  his  carriage, 
from  hospital  to  hospital.  He  helps  me  to 
distribute  my  modest  gifts  of  tobacco,  ar- 
ranged by  the  merchants  in  thousands  of 
little  bags  that  are  carried  by  willing  soldiers 
in  very  large  baskets. 

Everywhere  I  am  well  received.  Only  a 
doctor  of  Lombardy,  named  Calini,  will  not 
allow  the  distribution  of  cigars  in  the  hos- 
pital San  Luca,  which  is  confided  to  his  care. 
In  other  places  the  physicians,  on  the  con- 
trary, show  themselves  almost  as  grateful  as 
their  patients.  But  wishing  to  try  once  more 
at  San  Luca,  I  visit  again  that  hospital  and 
succeed  in  making  a  large  distribution  of 
cigars,  to  the  great  joy  the  poor  wounded, 
whom  I  had  innocently  made  suffer  the 
torments  of  Tantalus. 

During  the  course  of  my  investigations  I 
60 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

penetrate  into  a  series  of  rooms  forming  the 
second  floor  of  a  large  monastery,  a  kind  of 
labyrinth  of  which  the  ground  and  the  first 
floors  are  full  of  the  sick.  I  find  in  one  of  the 
upper  rooms  four  or  five  wounded  and  fev- 
erish patients,  in  another  ten  or  fifteen,  in  a 
third  about  twenty,  all  neglected  (this  is 
very  excusable ;  there  were  so  many  wounded, 
everywhere),  complaining  bitterly  of  not 
having  seen  a  nurse  for  several  hours  and 
begging  insistently  that  some  one  bring  them 
bouillon  in  place  of  cold  water  which  they 
have  for  their  only  drink.  At  the  end  of  an 
interminable  corridor,  in  a  little  isolated 
room,  is  dying  absolutely  alone,  motionless 
on  a  mattress,  a  young  corporal  attacked 
with  tetanus.  Although  he  seems  full  of  life 
as  his  eyes  are  wide  open,  he  hears  and  un- 
derstands nothing  and  remains  neglected. 

Many  of  the  soldiers  beg  me  to  write  to 
their  relatives,  some  to  their  captains,  who 
replace  in  their  eyes  their  absent  families. 

In  the  hospital  of  Saint  Clement,  a  lady  of 
Brescia,  Countess  Bronna,  occupies  herself, 
with  saintly  self-abnegation,  in  nursing 
those  who  have  had  limbs  amputated.  The 
French  soldiers  speak  of  her  with  enthu- 
siasm, the  most  repellant  details  do  not  stop 
her.  "Sono  madre!"  she  says  to  me  with 

61 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

simplicity:  "I  am  a  mother!"  These  words 
well  express  her  devotion  as  complete  as 
motherly. 

In  the  hospital  San  Gaetano,  a  Franciscan 
monk,  distinguishes  himself  by  his  zeal  and 
kindness  to  the  sick.  A  convalescent  Pied- 
montese,  speaking  French  and  Italian,  trans- 
lates the  petitions  of  the  French  soldiers  to 
the  Lombardy  physicians.  They  keep  him  as 
interpreter. 

In  a  neighboring  hospital  chloroform  is 
used.  Some  patients  are  chloroformed  with 
difficulty,  accidents  result  and  sometimes  it 
is  in  vain  that  they  try  to  revive  a  man  who 
a  few  minutes  before  was  speaking. 

I  am  stopped  many  times  on  the  street  by 
kind  people  who  beg  me  to  come  to  their 
homes,  for  a  minute,  to  act  as  interpreter  to 
the  wounded  French  officers,  lodged  in  their 
houses,  surrounded  by  the  best  care,  but 
whose  language  they  do  not  understand. 
The  invalids,  excited  and  uneasy,  are  irri- 
tated at  not  being  understood,  to  the  great 
distress  of  the  family  whose  sympathetic 
kindness  is  received  with  the  bad  humour 
that  fever  and  suffering  often  call  forth.  One 
of  them,  whom  an  Italian  physician  desires 
to  bleed,  imagining  that  they  wish  to  ampu- 
tate him,  resists  with  all  his  strength,  over- 

62 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

heating  himself  and  doing  himself  much 
harm.  A  few  words  of  explanation  in  their 
mother  tongue,  in  the  midst  of  this  lamenta- 
ble confusion,  alone  succeed  in  calming  and 
tranquilizing  these  invalids  of  Solferino. 

With  what  patience  the  inhabitants  of 
Brescia  devote  themselves  to  these  who  have 
sacrificed  themselves  in  order  to  deliver  them 
from  a  foreign  rule!  They  feel  a  real  grief 
when  their  charge  dies.  These  adopted  fam- 
ilies religiously  follow  to  the  cemetery,  ac- 
companying to  its  last  resting  place,  the 
coffin  of  the  French  officer,  their  guest  of  a 
few  days,  for  whom  they  weep  as  for  a 
friend,  a  relative  or  a  son,  but  whose  name, 
perhaps,  they  do  not  know. 

During  the  night  the  soldiers,  who  have 
died  in  the  hospitals,  are  interred.  Their 
names  and  numbers  are  noted  down,  which 
was  rarely  done  in  Castiglione.  For  exam- 
ple, the  parents  of  Corporal  Mazuet,  aided 
by  me  in  the  Chiesa  Maggiore  and  who  lived 
in  Lyons,  3  Rue  d'Alger,  never  received 
other  information  about  their  son  than  that 
which  I  sent  them. 

All  the  cities  of  Lombardy  considered  it 
due  to  their  honor  to  share  in  the  distribution 
of  the  wounded. 

In  Bergamo  and  Cremona  special  commis- 

63 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

sions  organized  in  haste  are  aided  by  aux- 
iliary committees  of  devoted  ladies.  In  one 
of  the  hospitals  of  Cremona  an  Italian 
physician  having  said:  "We  keep  the  good 
things  for  our  friends  of  the  allied  army, 
but  we  give  to  our  enemies  only  what  is 
absolutely  necessary,  and  if  they  die,  so  much 
the  worse  for  them !"  A  lady,  directing  one 
of  the  hospitals  of  that  city,  hastened  to 
disapprove  of  these  barbarous  words,  saying 
that  she  always  took  the  same  care  of  Aus- 
trians,  French  and  Sardinians,  not  wishing 
to  make  any  difference  between  friends  and 
enemies,  "for,"  she  said,  "Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  made  no  distinction  between  men 
when  it  was  a  question  of  doing  them  good." 
In  Cremona,  as  everywhere  else,  the 
French  physicians  regret  their  insufficient 
number.  "I  cannot,  without  profound  sor- 
row," said  Dr.  Sonrier,  "think  of  a  small 
room  of  twenty-five  beds  assigned,  in  Cre- 
mona, to  the  most  dangerously  wounded  Aus- 
trians.  I  see  again  their  faces,  emaciated 
and  wan,  with  complexion  pallid  from  ex- 
haustion and  blood  poisoning,  begging  with 
heartrending  gestures,  accompanied  by  piti- 
ful cries,  for  one  last  favor,  the  amputation 
of  a  limb  (which  they  had  hoped  to  save), 
64 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

to  end  an  intolerable  agony  of  which  we  are 
forced  to  remain  powerless  spectators." 

Besides  the  group  of  courageous  and  inde- 
fatigable surgeons,  whose  names  I  would  like 
to  be  able  to  cite  (for,  certainly,  if  to  kill  men 
is  a  title  to  glory,  to  nurse  them  and  cure 
them,  often  at  the  risk  of  one's  own  life, 
merits  indeed  esteem  and  gratitude),  medi- 
cal students  hasten  from  Bologna,  Pisa  and 
other  Italian  cities.  A  Canadian  surgeon, 
Dr.  Norman  Bettun,  professor  of  anatomy  in 
Toronto,  comes  to  assist  these  devoted  men. 
Besides  the  people  of  Lombardy,  French, 
Swiss  and  Belgian  tourists  seek  to  render 
themselves  useful,  but  their  efforts  had  to  be 
limited  to  the  distribution  of  oranges,  ices, 
coffee,  lemonade  and  tobacco. 

In  Plaisance,  whose  three  hospitals  are  ad- 
ministered by  private  individuals,  and  by 
ladies  serving  as  nurses,  one  of  these  last,  a 
young  lady,  supplicated  by  her  family  to 
renounce  her  intention  to  pass  her  days  in 
the  hospital,  on  account  of  the  contagious 
fevers  there,  continued  her  labors  so  will- 
ingly and  with  such  kindness  that  she  was 
greatly  esteemed  by  all  the  soldiers.  "She 
enlivens  the  hospital,"  they  said. 

How  valuable,  in  the  cities  of  Lombardy, 
would  have  been  some  hundreds  of  voluntary 
65 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

nurses,  devoted,  experienced  and,  above  all, 
previously  instructed !  They  would  have  ral- 
lied around  themselves  the  meagre  band  of 
assistants  and  the  scattered  forces.  Not 
only  was  time  lacking  to  those  who  were 
capable  of  counselling  and  guiding;  but  the 
necessary  knowledge  and  experience  was  not 
possessed  by  the  greater  number  of  those 
who  could  offer  only  personal  devotion, 
which  was  insufficient  and  often  useless. 
What,  indeed,  in  spite  of  their  good  will, 
could  a  handful  of  persons  do  in  such  urgent 
need?  After  some  weeks  the  compassionate 
enthusiasm  began  to  cool  and  the  people,  as 
inexperienced  as  they  were  injudicious  in 
their  kindness,  sometimes  brought  improper 
food  to  the  wounded,  so  that  it  was  necessary 
to  deny  them  entrance  to  the  churches  and 
hospitals. 

Many  persons,  who  would  have  consented 
to  pass  one  or  two  hours  a  day  with  the  sick, 
gave  up  their  intention,  because  a  special  per- 
mission was  necessary,  which  could  only  be 
obtained  by  petitioning  the  authorities. 
Strangers  disposed  to  help  met  with  all  kinds 
of  unexpected  hindrances,  of  a  nature  to  dis- 
courage them.  But  voluntary  hospital  work- 
ers, well  chosen  and  capable,  sent  by  societies 
with  the  sanction  of  the  governments  and 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

respected  because  of  an  agreement  between 
the  belligerents,  would  have  surmounted  the 
difficulties  and  done  incomparably  more  good. 

During  the  first  eight  days  after  the  battle 
the  wounded,  of  whom  the  physicians  said,  in 
low  tones,  when  passing  by  their  beds  and 
shaking  their  heads :  "There  is  nothing  more 
to  be  done,"  received  no  more  attention  and 
died  neglected.  And  is  not  this  very  natural 
when  the  scarcity  of  the  nurses  is  compared 
with  the  enormous  number  of  the  wounded? 
An  inexorable  and  cruel  logic  insists  that 
these  unfortunate  men  should  be  left  to 
perish  without  further  care  and  without  hav- 
ing given  to  them  the  precious  time  that 
must  be  reserved  for  the  soldiers  who  could 
be  cured.  They  were  numerous,  however, 
and  not  deaf,  those  unfortunate  men  on 
whom  was  passed  such  pitiless  judgment! 
Soon  they  perceive  their  deserted  condition 
and  with  a  broken  and  embittered  heart  gasp 
out  the  last  breath  while  no  one  notices. 

The  death  of  many  a  one  among  them  is 
rendered  more  sad  and  bitter  by  the  prox- 
imity, on  a  cot  by  his  side,  of  a  young  soldier, 
slightly  wounded,  whose  foolish  jokes  leave 
him  neither  peace  nor  tranquillity.  On  the 
other  side,  one  of  his  companions  in  misery 
has  just  died;  and,  he  dying,  must  see  and 
67 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

hear  the  funeral  ceremony,  much  too  rapidly 
performed,  which  shows  him  in  advance  his 
own.  Finally,  about  to  die,  he  sees  men, 
profiting  by  his  weakness,  search  his  knap- 
sack and  steal  what  they  desire. 

For  that  dying  man  there  have  been,  lying 
in  the  postoffice  for  eight  days,  letters  from 
his  family;  if  he  could  have  had  them,  they 
would  have  been  to  him  a  great  consolation ; 
he  has  entreated  the  nurses  to  bring  them 
that  he  may  read  them  before  his  last  hour, 
but  they  replied  unkindly,  that  they  had  not 
time  as  there  was  so  much  else  to  do. 

Better  would  it  have  been  for  you,  poor 
martyr,  if  you  had  perished,  struck  dead  on 
the  field  of  butchery,  in  the  midst  of 
the  splendid  abomination  which  men  call 
"Glory!"  Your  name,  at  least,  would  not 
have  been  forgotten,  if  you  had  fallen  near 
your  colonel  defending  the  flag  of  your  regi- 
ment. It  would  almost  have  been  better  for 
you  had  you  been  buried  alive  by  the  peas- 
ants commissioned  for  that  purpose,  when 
you,  unconscious,  were  carried  from  the  hill 
of  the  Cypresses,  from  the  foot  of  the  tower 
of  Solferino  or  from  the  plains  of  Medole. 
Your  agony  would  not  have  been  long.  Now, 
it  is  a  succession  of  miseries  that  you  must 
endure,  it  is  no  longer  the  field  of  honor  that 

68 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

is  presented  to  you,  but  cold  death  with  all  its 
terrors,  and  the  word  "disappeared"  for  a 
funeral  oration. 

What  has  become  of  the  love  of  glory 
which  electrified  this  brave  soldier  at  the 
commencement  of  the  campaign  and  during 
that  day  at  Solferino,  when,  risking  his  own 
life,  he  so  courageously  attempted  to  take  the 
lives  of  his  fellow-creatures,  whose  blood  he 
ran,  with  such  light  feet,  to  shed?  Where  is 
the  irresistible  allurement?  Where  the  con- 
tagious enthusiasm,  increased  by  the  odor  of 
powder,  by  the  flourish  of  trumpets  and  by 
the  sound  of  military  music,  by  the  noise  of 
cannon  and  the  whistling  of  bullets  which 
hide  the  view  of  danger,  suffering  and  death. 

In  these  many  hospitals  of  Lombardy  may 
be  seen  at  what  price  is  bought  that  which 
men  so  proudly  call  "Glory/*  and  how  dearly 
this  glory  costs. 

The  battle  of  Solferino  is  the  only  one  dur- 
ing our  century  to  be  compared  by  the  mag- 
nitude of  its  losses  with  the  battles  of 
Moscow,  Leipzig  and  Waterloo. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  twenty-fourth  of 
June,  1859,  it  has  been  calculated  that  there 
were  in  killed  and  wounded,  in  the  Austrian 
and  Franco-Sardinian  Armies,  three  field- 
marshals,  nine  generals,  fifteen  hundred  and 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

sixty-six  officers  of  all  grades,  of  whom  six 
hundred  and  thirty  were  Austrians  and  nine 
hundred  and  thirty-six  allies,  and  about 
forty  thousand  soldiers  and  non-commis- 
sioned officers. 

Besides  that,  from  the  fifteenth  of  June  to 
the  thirty-first  of  August,  there  were  in  the 
hospitals  of  Brescia,  according  to  the  official 
statistics,  nineteen  thousand  six  hundred 
and  sixty-five  patients  with  fever  and  other 
illnesses,  of  whom  more  than  nineteen  thou- 
sand belonged  to  the  Franco-Sardinian 
Army. 

On  their  side,  the  Austrians  had  at  least 
twenty  thousand  sick  soldiers  in  Venice,  be- 
side ten  thousand  wounded,  who,  after  Sol- 
ferino,  were  sent  to  Verona,  where  the  over- 
crowded hospitals  were  finally  attacked  by 
gangrene  and  typhus  fever. 

Consequently,  to  the  forty  thousand  killed 
and  wounded  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  June, 
must  be  added  more  than  forty  thousand  sick 
with  fever  or  dying  from  illness  caused  by 
the  excessive  fatigue  experienced  on  the  day 
of  the  battle  or  during  the  days  which  pre- 
ceded and  succeeded  it  or  from  the  pernicious 
effects  of  the  tropical  temperature  of  the 
plains  of  Lombardy,  or,  finally,  from  the 
imprudence  of  these  soldiers  themselves. 
70 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

If  one  does  not  consider  the  military  point 
of  view,  the  battle  of  Solferino  was  then, 
from  the  point  of  humanity  a  European 
catastrophe. 

The  transportation  of  the  wounded  from 
Brescia  to  Milan,  which  takes  place  during 
the  night  because  of  the  torrid  heat  of  the 
day,  presents  a  dramatic  sight  with  its  trains 
loaded  with  crippled  soldiers  arriving  at  the 
station  filled  with  crowds  of  people. 

Lighted  by  the  pale  flare  of  the  tar  torches, 
the  mass  of  men  seems  to  hold  its  breath  to 
listen  to  the  groans  and  the  stifled  complaints 
which  reach  their  ears. 

The  Austrians,  in  their  retreat,  having 
torn  up  several  places  on  the  railroad  be- 
tween Milan  and  Brescia — this  road  was  re- 
stored for  use  by  the  first  days  of  July,  for 
the  transportation  of  ammunitions,  of  sup- 
plies and  of  food  sent  to  the  allied  army — the 
evacuation  of  the  hospitals  in  Brescia  was  in 
this  way  facilitated. 

At  each  station,  long  and  narrow 
sheds  have  been  constructed  to  receive  the 
wounded.  These,  when  taken  from  the  cars, 
are  placed  on  mattresses,  arranged  in  a  line 
one  after  the  other.  Under  these  sheds  are 
set  up  tables  covered  with  bread,  soup,  lem- 
onade, wine,  water,  lint,  linen  and  bandages. 

71 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

Torches,  carried  by  the  young  men  of  the 
place  where  the  convoy  stops,  light  the  dark- 
ness. The  citizens  of  Lombardy  hasten  to 
present  their  tribute  of  gratitude  to  the  con- 
querors of  Solferino;  in  respectful  silence 
they  bandage  the  wounded  whom  they  have 
lifted  carefully  out  of  the  cars  to  place  them 
on  the  beds  made  ready  for  their  use.  The 
women  of  the  country  offer  refreshing 
drinks,  and  food  of  all  kinds,  which  they 
distribute  on  the  cars  to  those  who  must  go 
on  to  Milan. 

In  this  city,  where  about  a  thousand 
wounded  have  arrived  every  night  for  sev- 
eral nights  in  succession,  the  martyrs  of  Sol- 
ferino are  received  with  great  kindness.  No 
longer  are  rose  leaves  scattered  from  the 
flag-ornamented  balconies  of  the  luxurious 
palaces  of  the  Milanese  aristocracy,  on  shin- 
ing epaulets  and  on  striped  gold  and  enam- 
eled orders,  by  beautiful  and  graceful  ladies 
whom  exaltation  and  enthusiasm  rendered 
still  more  beautiful.  To-day,  in  their  grati- 
tude, they  shed  tears  of  compassion  which 
are  interpreted  by  devotion  and  sacrifice. 

Every  family  possessing  a  carriage,  goes 
to  the  station  to  transport  the  wounded.  The 
number  of  equipages  sent  by  the  people  of 
Milan  probably  exceeds  five  hundred.  The 

72 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

finest  carriages  as  well  as  the  most  modest 
carts  are  sent  every  evening  to  Porto  Tosca, 
where  stands  the  railroad  station  for  Venice. 
The  Italian  ladies  consider  it  an  honor  to 
themselves  to  place  in  their  rich  carriages, 
which  they  have  provided  with  mattresses, 
sheets  and  pillows,  the  guests  assigned  to 
them  and  who  are  accompanied  by  the 
greatest  noblemen  of  Lombardy,  aided  in 
this  work  by  their  not  less  considerate 
servants. 

The  people  applaud  the  passage  of  these 
men,  famed  because  of  their  suffering.  They 
respectfully  uncover  their  heads.  They  fol- 
low the  slow  march  of  the  convoy  with 
torches  illuminating  the  sad  faces  of  the 
wounded,  who  try  to  smile.  They  accompany 
them  to  the  door  of  the  hospitable  palace, 
where  awaits  them  the  most  devoted  care. 

Every  family  wishes  to  receive  the  French 
wounded  and,  by  all  sorts  of  kindness,  try  to 
lessen  the  sadness  caused  by  distance  from 
home,  from  parents  and  from  friends. 

But  after  a  few  days  the  greater  number 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Milan  are  obliged  to  re- 
move to  the  hospitals  the  wounded  whom 
they  have  received  in  their  houses.  The  ad- 
ministration desires  to  avoid  too  great  scat- 
tering of  the  nursing  and  any  increase  of 

73 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

fatigue  for  the  physicians.  Before  Solferino, 
the  hospitals  of  this  city  contained  about  nine 
thousand  wounded  from  preceding  battles. 

Great  Milanese  ladies  watch  beside  the  bed 
of  the  simple  soldier,  of  whom  they  become 
the  guardian  angels.  Countess  Verri, 
nee  Borromeo,  Madame  Uboldi  de  Capei, 
Madame  Boselli,  Madame  Sala-Taverna, 
Countess  Taverna  and  many  others,  forget- 
ting their  luxurious  habits,  pass  whole 
months  by  these  beds  of  suffering.  Some  of 
these  ladies  are  mothers,  whose  mourning 
garments  testify  to  a  recent  and  sorrowful 
loss.  One  of  them  said:  "The  war  robbed 
me  of  my  oldest  son;  he  died  eight  months 
ago,  from  a  shot  received  while  fighting  with 
the  French  Army  at  Sebastopol.  When  I 
knew  that  the  French  wounded  were  coming 
to  Milan  and  that  I  could  nurse  them,  I  felt 
that  God  was  sending  me  His  first  conso- 
lation." 

Countess  Verri-Borromeo,  president  of  the 
Central  Aid  Committee,  has  charge  of  the 
great  depot  for  linens  and  lint.  In  spite  of 
her  advanced  age  she  devotes  many  hours  a 
day  to  reading  to  the  sick. 

All  the  palaces  contain  wounded.  That  of 
the  Borrome'o  family  has  received  three  hun- 
dred. The  Superior  of  the  Ursulines,  Sister 
74 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

Marina  Videmari,  has  converted  her  convent 
into  a  hospital  and  serves  in  it  with  her  com- 
panions. This  convent-hospital  is  a  model 
of  order  and  cleanliness. 

The  Marchioness  Pallavicini-Trivulzio, 
who  presides  over  the  great  Turin  Commit- 
tee with  admirable  devotion  and  self-forget- 
fulness,  collects  the  donations  from  different 
cities  and  countries;  thanks  to  her  activity 
the  depot  in  Milan,  situated  contrada  San 
Paolo,  remains  always  well  provided. 

Some  weeks  later,  in  the  streets  of  Milan, 
there  were  seen  passing  a  few  companies  of 
convalescent  French  soldiers  sadly  returning 
to  France.  Some  have  their  arms  in  slings, 
others  are  supported  by  crutches  or  bear 
marks  of  wounds.  Their  uniforms  are  well 
worn  and  torn,  but  they  wear  fine  linen, 
which  the  rich  men  of  Lombardy  have  gen- 
erously given  them  in  exchange  for  their 
blood-stained  shirts :  "Your  blood  flowed  to 
defend  our  country,"  they  said,  "and  we 
wish  to  keep  these  memories  of  it."  These 
men,  not  long  ago  so  strong,  so  robust,  now 
deprived  of  an  arm  or  a  leg  or  with  head 
bandaged,  bear  their  misfortune  with  resig- 
nation. But,  thus  incapable  of  continuing  in 
the  army  and  earning  bread  for  their 
families,  they  already  with  bitterness,  behold 

75 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

themselves,  after  their  return  to  their  native 
land,  objects  of  commiseration  and  pity,  a 
care  to  others  and  to  themselves. 

In  one  of  the  hospitals  of  Milan,  a  ser- 
geant of  the  Zouave  Guard,  with  an  energetic 
and  proud  face,  who  has  had  one  leg  ampu- 
tated and  had  borne  that  operation  without  a 
complaint,  was  seized,  some  time  after,  with 
extreme  sadness,  although  his  health  was  im- 
proving and  his  recovery  rapidly  taking 
place.  This  sadness,  increasing  daily,  was 
incomprehensible.  A  Sister  of  Charity,  per- 
ceiving tears  in  his  eyes,  questioned  so  in- 
sistently that  he  at  last  confessed  that  he 
was  the  sole  support  of  his  aged  and  infirm 
mother  to  whom  he  used  to  send  each  month 
five  francs  of  his  pay.  He  added  that,  being 
unable  to  help  her,  this  poor  woman  must  be 
in  great  need  of  money.  The  Sister  of 
Charity,  touched  with  compassion,  gave  him 
five  francs,  the  value  of  which  was  imme- 
diately sent  to  France.  When  the  directress 
of  the  hospital  wished  to  make  him  another 
gift,  he  would  not  accept  it,  and  said  to  her 
thankfully:  "Keep  this  money  for  others 
who  need  it  more  than  I ;  as  for  my  mother, 
I  hope  next  month  to  send  her  her  usual 
allowance,  for  I  count  on  soon  being  able  to 
work." 

76 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

A  lady  of  Milan,  bearing  an  illustrious 
name,  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the 
wounded  one  of  her  palaces,  with  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  beds.  Among  the  soldiers, 
lodged  in  this  magnificent  mansion,  was  a 
grenadier  of  the  Seventieth  Regiment  of  the 
French  Infantry,  who,  having  undergone  an 
operation,  was  in  danger  of  death.  The 
lady,  trying  to  console  him,  spoke  to  him  of 
his  family.  He  told  her  that  he  was  the  only 
son  of  poor  peasants  in  the  Department  of 
Gers,  and  that  he  was  very  sad  at  leav- 
ing his  parents  in  misery,  for  he  alone 
provided  for  their  maintenance.  He  added 
that  his  greatest  consolation  would  be  to 
kiss  his  mother  before  he  died.  Saying 
nothing  to  him  of  her  project,  the  noble 
lady  suddenly  decides  to  leave  Milan,  takes 
the  train,  reaches  the  Departments  of  Gers, 
near  the  family,  whose  address  she  has  pro- 
cured, takes  possession  of  the  mother  of  the 
wounded  man.  After  having  left  a  large  sum 
of  money  for  the  infirm  old  father,  she  brings 
the  humble  villager  with  her  to  Milan;  and 
six  days  after  the  confession  of  the  grena- 
dier, the  son  kisses  his  mother,  weeping  and 
blessing  his  benefactress. 

But  why  recall  so  many  pitiful  and  melan- 
choly scenes  and  thus  arouse  such  painful 

77 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

emotions?  Why  relate,  with  complaisance, 
these  lamentable  details  and  dwell  upon  these 
distressing  pictures? 

To  this  very  natural  question  we  reply 
with  another  question. 

Would  it  not  be  possible  to  establish  in 
every  country  of  Europe,  Aid  Societies, 
whose  aim  would  be  to  provide,  during  war, 
volunteer  nurses  for  the  wounded,  without 
distinction  of  nationality? 

As  they  wish  us  to  give  up  the  desires  and 
hopes  of  the  Societies  of  the  Friends  of 
Peace,  the  beautiful  dreams  of  the  Abbot  of 
Saint  Pierre  and  of  Count  Sellon;  as  men 
continue  to  kill  each  other  without  personal 
enmity,  and  as  the  height  of  glory  in  war 
is  to  exterminate  the  greatest  number 
possible;  as  they  still  dare  to  say,  as  did 
Count  Joseph  de  Maistre,  that  "war  is  di- 
vine" ;  as  they  invent  every  day  with  a  perse- 
verence  worthy  of  a  better  aim,  instruments 
of  destruction  more  and  more  terrible,  and 
as  the  inventors  of  these  death-dealing  en- 
gines are  encouraged  by  all  the  European 
governments — who  arm  themselves  in  emu- 
lation one  of  another — why  not  profit  from  a 
moment  of  comparative  calm  and  tranquillity 
in  order  to  settle  the  question  which  we  have 
just  raised,  and  which  is  of  such  great  im- 

78 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

portance  from  the  double  point  of  view  of 
humanity  and  Christianity. 

Once  presented  to  the  consideration  of 
every  man,  this  theme  will  probably  call 
forth  opinions  and  writings  from  more  com- 
petent persons ;  but,  first,  must  not  this  idea, 
presented  to  the  different  branches  of  the 
great  European  family,  hold  the  attention 
and  conquer  the  sympathies  of  all  those  who 
possess  an  elevated  soul  and  a  heart  capable 
of  being  moved  by  the  suffering  of  their 
fellow-men  ? 

Such  is  the  purpose  for  which  this  book 
has  been  written. 

Societies  of  this  kind,  once  created,  with  a 
permanent  existence,  would  be  found  all 
ready  at  the  time  of  war.  They  should  ob- 
tain the  favor  of  the  authorities  of  countries 
where  they  are  created,  and  beg,  in  case  of 
war,  from  the  sovereigns  of  the  belligerent 
powers  the  permission  and  the  facilities 
necessary  to  carry  out  their  purpose.  These 
societies  should  include  in  their  own  and 
each  country,  as  members  of  the  central  com- 
mittee, the  most  honorable  and  esteemed 
men. 

The  moment  of  the  commencement  of  war, 
the  committee  would  call  on  those  persons 
who  desire  to  dedicate  themselves,  for  the 

79 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

time  being,  to  this  work,  which  will  consist 
in  helping  and  nursing,  under  the  guidance 
of  experienced  physicians,  the  wounded,  first 
on  the  battle-field,  then  in  the  field  and  regu- 
lar hospitals. 

Spontaneous  devotion  is  not  as  rare  as  one 
might  think.  Many  persons,  sure  of  being 
able  to  do  some  good,  helped  and  facilitated 
by  a  Superior  Committee,  would  certainly 
go,  and  others,  at  their  own  expense,  would 
undertake  a  task  so  essentially  beneficent. 
During  our  selfish  century  what  an  attrac- 
tion for  the  generous-hearted  and  for  chival- 
rous characters  to  brave  the  same  danger 
as  the  soldier  with  an  entirely  voluntary  mis- 
sion of  peace  and  consolation. 

History  proves  that  it  is  in  no  way  chi- 
merical to  hope  for  such  self-devotion.  Two 
recent  facts  especially  have  just  confirmed 
this.  They  occurred  during  the  war  in  the 
East  and  closely  relate  to  our  subject. 

While  Sisters  of  Charity  were  nursing  the 
wounded  and  sick  of  the  French  army  in 
the  Crimea,  into  the  Russian  and  English 
armies,  there  came,  from  the  north  and  west, 
two  groups  of  self -devoted  women  nurses. 

The  Grand  Duchess  Helen  Pavlovna,  of 
Russia,  born,  Princess  Charlotte,  of  Wurt- 
temberg,  widow  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael, 

80 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

having  enlisted  nearly  three  hundred  ladies 
of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow,  to  serve  as 
nurses  in  the  Russian  hospitals  of  the  Cri- 
mea; she  provided  them  with  everything 
necessary,  and  these  saintly  women  were 
blessed  by  thousands  of  soldiers. 

In  England,  Miss  Florence  Nightingale, 
having  received  a  pressing  appeal  from  Lord 
Sidney  Herbert,  Secretary  of  War  of  the 
British  Empire,  inviting  her  to  go  to  the  aid 
of  the  English  soldiers  in  the  Orient,  this 
lady  did  not  hesitate  to  expose  herself  person- 
ally by  great  self-devotion.  In  November, 
1854,  she  went  to  Constantinople  and  Scu- 
tari with  thirty-seven  English  ladies,  who, 
immediately  on  arrival  gave  their  attention 
to  nursing  the  great  number  of  men, 
wounded  in  the  battle  of  Inkerman.  In  1855 
Miss  Stanley,  having  come  to  take  part  in  her 
labor  with  fifty  new  companions,  made  it 
possible  for  Miss  Nightingale  to  go  to  Balak- 
lava  to  inspect  the  hospitals  there.  The  pic- 
ture of  Miss  Florence  Nightingale,  during 
the  night,  going  through  the  vast  wards  of 
the  military  hospitals  with  a  small  lamp  in 
her  hand,  noting  the  condition  of  each  sick 
man,  will  never  be  obliterated  from  the 
hearts  of  the  men,  who  were  the  objects  or 
the  witnesses  of  her  admirable  beneficence, 

81 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

and  the  memory  of  it  will  be  engraven  in 
history. 

Of  the  multitude  of  similar  good  works, 
ancient  or  modern,  the  greater  number  of 
which  have  remained  unknown  and  without 
fame,  how  many  have  been  in  vain,  because 
they  were  isolated  and  were  not  supported 
by  a  united  action,  which  would  have  wisely 
joined  them  together  for  a  common  aim. 

If  voluntary  hospital  workers  could  have 
been  found  in  Castiglione  on  the  twenty- 
fourth,  the  twenty-fifth,  and  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  June,  and  also  in  Brescia,  Mantua, 
and  Verona,  how  much  good  they  might  have 
done. 

How  many  human  beings  they  might  have 
saved  from  death  during  that  fatal  Friday 
night,  when  moans  and  heartrending  suppli- 
cations escaped  from  the  breasts  of  thou- 
sands of  the  wounded,  who  were  enduring  the 
most  acute  pains  and  tormented  by  the  inex- 
pressible suffering  of  thirst. 

If  Prince  von  Isenburg  had  been  rescued 
sooner,  by  compassionate  hands,  from  the 
blood-soaked  field  on  which  he  was  lying  un- 
conscious, he  would  not  have  been  obliged  to 
suffer  for  several  years  from  wounds  aggra- 
vated by  long  neglect;  if  the  sight  of  his 
riderless  horse  had  not  brought  about  his 

82 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

discovery  among  the  corpses,  he  would  have 
perished  for  lack  of  help  with  so  many  other 
wounded,  who  also  were  creatures  of  God, 
and  whose  death  would  be  equally  cruel  for 
their  families. 

Those  good  old  women,  those  beautiful 
young  girls  of  Castiglione  could  not  save  the 
lives  of  many  of  those  whom  they  nursed! 
Besides  them  were  needed  experienced  men, 
skillful,  decided,  previously  trained  to  act 
with  order  and  harmony,  the  only  means  of 
preventing  the  accidents,  which  complicate 
the  wounds  and  make  them  mortal. 

If  there  could  have  been  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  assistants  to  remove  the  wounded 
quickly  from  the  plains  of  Medole,  from  the 
ravines  of  San  Martin,  on  the  slopes  of 
Mount  Fontana,  or  on  the  hills  of  Solferino, 
there  would  not  have  been  left  during  long 
hours  of  terrible  fear  that  poor  bersaglier, 
that  Uhlan,  or  that  Zouave,  who  tried  to  raise 
himself,  in  spite  of  cruel  suffering,  to  gesticu- 
late in  vain  for  some  one  to  send  a  litter  for 
him.  Finally,  the  risk  of  burying  the  living 
with  the  dead  would  have  been  avoided. 

Better  means  of  transportation  would 
have  made  it  possible  to  avoid  in  the  case  of 
the  light  infantryman  of  the  Guard  the  ter- 
rible amputation  which  he  had  to  undergo 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

in  Brescia,  because  of  the  lack  of  proper 
care  during  the  journey  from  the  battle-field 
to  Castiglione. 

The  sight  of  those  young  cripples,  deprived 
of  an  arm,  or  a  leg,  returning  sadly  to  their 
homes,  does  it  not  call  forth  remorse  that 
there  was  not  more  effort  made  before  to 
avert  the  evil  consequences  of  the  wounds, 
which,  often  could  have  been  cured  by  timely 
aid? 

Would  those  dead,  deserted  in  the  hospitals 
of  Castiglione,  or  in  those  of  Brescia,  many 
of  whom  could  not  make  themselves  under- 
stood, on  account  of  the  difference  of  lan- 
guage, have  gasped  out  their  last  breath  with 
curses  and  blasphemies,  if  they  had  had  near 
them  some  compassionate  soul  to  listen  to 
them  and  console  them? 

In  spite  of  the  official  aid,  in  spite  of  the 
zeal  of  the  cities  of  Lombardy,  much  re- 
mained to  be  done,  although  in  no  other  war 
has  been  seen  so  great  a  display  of  charity; 
it  was  nevertheless  unequal  to  the  extent  of 
the  help  that  was  needed. 

It  is  not  the  paid  employee,  whom  dis- 
gust drives  away,  whom  fatigue  makes  un- 
feeling, unsympathetic  and  lazy  who  can  ful- 
fil such  a  noble  task.  Immediate  help  is 
needed,  for  that  which  can  to-day  save  the 

84 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

wounded  will  not  save  him  to-morrow;  the 
loss  of  time  causes  gangrene,  which  leads  to 
death.  One  must  have  volunteer  nurses,  pre- 
viously trained,  accustomed  to  the  work, 
officially  recognized  by  the  commanding 
officers  of  the  armies,  so  that  they  may  be 
facilitated  in  their  mission. 

These  nurses  should  not  only  find  their 
place  on  the  battle-field,  but  also  in  the  hos- 
pitals, where  the  long  weeks  pass  away  pain- 
fully for  the  wounded,  without  family  and 
without  friends.  During  this  short  Italian 
war,  there  were  soldiers  who  were  attacked 
with  home-sickness  to  such  a  degree  that, 
without  other  illness  and  without  wounds, 
they  died.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Italians, 
and  this  is  comprehensible,  showed  scarcely 
any  interest  in  the  wounded  of  the  allied 
army,  and  still  less  for  the  suffering  Aus- 
trians.  It  is  true,  courageous  women  were 
found  in  Italy,  whose  patience  and  perse- 
verance never  wearied;  but,  unfortunately, 
in  the  end  they  could  be  easily  counted;  the 
contagious  fevers  drove  many  persons  away, 
and  the  nurses  and  servants  did  not  respond 
for  any  length  of  time,  to  that  which  might 
have  been  expected  of  them.  The  personnel 
of  the  military  hospitals  is  always  insuffi- 
cient; and,  if  it  were  doubled  or  tripled,  it 

85 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

would  still  be  insufficient.  We  must  call  on 
the  public,  it  is  not  possible,  it  never  will  be 
possible  to  avoid  that.  Only  by  this  co- 
operation can  one  hope  to  lessen  the  suffer- 
ings of  war. 

An  appeal  must  be  made,  a  petition  pre- 
sented to  the  men  of  all  countries,  of  all 
classes,  to  the  influential  of  this  world,  as 
well  as  to  the  most  modest  artisan,  since  all 
can,  in  one  way  or  another,  each  in  his  own 
sphere,  and  according  to  his  strength,  co- 
operate in  some  measure  in  this  good  work. 

This  appeal  is  addressed  to  women  as  well 
as  to  men,  to  the  queen,  to  the  princess  seated 
on  the  steps  of  the  throne,  as  well  as  to  the 
humble  orphaned  and  charitable  maid-serv- 
ant or  the  poor  widow  alone  in  the  world, 
who  desires  to  consecrate  her  last  strength  to 
the  good  of  others. 

It  is  addressed  to  the  general,  to  the  mar- 
shal, the  Minister  of  War,  as  well  as  to  the 
writer  and  the  man  of  letters,  who,  by  his 
publications,  can  plead  with  ability  for  the 
cause,  thereby  interesting  all  mankind,  each 
nation,  each  country,  each  family  even,  since 
no  one  can  say  for  certain  that  he  is  exempt 
from  the  dangers  of  war. 

If  an  Austrian  general  and  a  French  gen- 
eral, after  having  fought  one  against  another 

86 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

at  Solferino,  could,  soon  afterwards,  finding 
themselves  seated  side  by  side  at  the  hos- 
pitable table  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  converse 
amicably  one  with  the  other,  what  would 
have  prevented  them  from  considering  and 
discussing  a  question  so  worthy  of  their  in- 
terest and  attention? 

During  the  grand  maneuvers  at  Cologne, 
in  1861,  King  William  of  Prussia  invited  to 
dinner,  in  Benrath  Castle,  near  Dusseldorf, 
the  officers  of  the  different  nations,  who  were 
sent  there  by  their  governments.  Before  go- 
ing to  the  table  the  King  took  by  the  hand 
General  Forey  and  General  Baumgarten: 
"Now  that  you  are  friends,"  he  said  to  them, 
smiling,  "sit  there,  beside  one  another,  and 
chat."  Forey  was  the  victor  of  Montebello, 
and  Baumgarten  was  his  adversary. 

On  extraordinary  occasions,  such  as  those 
which  assembled  at  Cologne,  at  Chalons,  or 
elsewhere,  eminent  men  of  the  military  art 
of  different  nations,  is  it  not  to  be  desired 
that  they  will  profit  by  this  kind  of  congress 
to  formulate  some  international,  sacred,  and 
accepted  principle  which,  once  agreed  upon 
and  ratified,  would  serve  as  the  foundation 
for  societies  for  aid  for  the  wounded  in  the 
different  countries  of  Europe?  It  is  still 
more  important  to  agree  upon  and  adopt  in 

87 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  RED  CROSS 

advance  these  measures,  because  when  hos- 
tilities have  commenced,  the  belligerents  are 
ill-disposed  one  towards  the  other,  and  will 
not  consider  these  questions,  except  from 
the  exclusive  point  of  view  of  their  own 
interests. 

Are  not  small  congresses  called  together  of 
scientists,  jurists,  medical  men,  agricultur- 
ists, statisticians,  and  economists,  who  meet 
expressly  in  order  to  consider  questions  of 
much  less  importance?  Are  there  not  inter- 
national societies  which  are  occupied  with 
questions  of  charity  and  public  utility?  Can- 
not men,  in  like  manner,  meet  to  solve  a 
problem  as  important  as  that  of  caring  for 
the  victims  of  war? 

Humanity  and  civilization  surely  demand 
the  accomplishment  of  such  a  work.  It  is 
a  duty,  to  the  fulfilment  of  which  every  good 
man,  and  every  person  possessing  any  in- 
fluence owes  his  assistance. 

What  prince,  what  ruler,  would  refuse  his 
support  to  these  societies,  and  would  not  be 
glad  to  give  the  soldiers  of  his  army  the  full 
assurance  that  they  will  be  immediately  and 
properly  nursed  in  case  they  should  be 
wounded? 

With  permanent  societies,  such  as  I  pro- 
pose, the  chance  of  waste  and  the  injudicious 

88 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED   CROSS 

distribution  of  money  and  supplies  would 
often  be  avoided.  During  the  war  in  the 
East  an  enormous  quantity  of  lint,  prepared 
by  Russian  ladies,  was  sent  from  St.  Peters- 
burg to  the  Crimea;  but  the  packages,  in- 
stead of  reaching  the  hospitals  to  which  they 
were  sent,  arrived  at  paper  mills  which  used 
it  all  for  their  own  industry. 

By  perfecting  the  means  of  transportation, 
by  preventing  the  accidents  during  the 
journey  from  the  battle-field  to  the  hospital, 
many  amputations  will  be  avoided,  and  the 
burden  of  the  governments,  which  pension 
the  injured  will  be  proportionately  lessened. 

These  societies,  by  their  permanent  ex- 
istence, could  also  render  great  service  at 
the  time  of  epidemics,  floods,  great  fires,  and 
other  unexpected  catastrophies ;  the  humane 
motive  which  would  have  created  them 
would  instigate  them  to  act  on  all  occasions 
in  which  their  labors  could  be  exercised. 

This  work  will  necessitate  the  devotion  of 
a  certain  number  of  persons,  but  it  will  never 
lack  money  in  time  of  war.  Each  one  will 
bring  his  offering  or  his  compassion  in  re- 
sponse to  the  appeals  which  will  be  made  by 
the  committee.  A  nation  will  not  remain 
indifferent  when  its  children  are  fighting  for 
its  defense.  The  difficulty  is  not  there;  but 
89 


THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE   RED  CROSS 

the  problem  rests  entirely  in  the  serious 
preparation,  in  all  countries,  of  a  work  of 
this  kind,  that  is,  in  the  creation  of  these 
societies. 

In  order  to  establish  these  committees  at 
the  head  of  the  societies,  all  that  is  necessary 
is  a  little  good-  will  on  the  part  of  some  hon- 
orable and  persevering  persons.  The  com- 
mittees, animated  by  an  international  spirit 
of  charity,  would  create  corps  of  nurses  in 
a  latent  state,  a  sort  of  staff.  The  commit- 
tees of  the  different  nations,  although  inde- 
pendent of  one  another,  will  know  how  to 
understand  and  correspond  with  each  other, 
to  convene  in  congress  and,  in  event  of  war, 
to  act  for  the  good  of  all. 

If  the  terrible  instruments  of  destruction 
now  possessed  by  the  nations  seem  to  shorten 
wars,  will  not,  on  the  other  hand,  the  battles 
be  more  deadly?  And  in  this  century,  when 
the  unexpected  plays  such  an  important  role, 
may  not  war  bring  about  the  most  sudden 
and  unforseen  results? 

Are  there  not,  in  these  considerations 
alone,  more  than  sufficient  reasons  for  us  not 
to  allow  ourselves  to  be  taken  unawares? 


90 


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LD  21-100m-7,'33 


